What's With This Cold Weather

About two and a half years ago we moved back to Texas. That was the plan all along, even though we'd been away more than a quarter of a century. As I've mentioned before, it is very difficult to explain why we moved back. There is nothing really superior about Texas; in many respects it's quite the contrary. I cannot understand why so many people have moved to Austin. Whatever attractions it may have had in the past have now been buried under seemingly endless miles of development in every direction. Every once in a while when I'm driving in some of the older neighborhoods I see something familiar and I think, oh yeah, that's how it was. But mostly Austin is just like Dallas or Houston or any other large city with money and real estate on its collective mind.

No, for us the main attraction was really the warm weather. We both grew up in San Antonio, which seems to have fixed our climatic identity in central Texas. We don't mind the heat and are willing to put up with all of those 100 degree days in the spring, summer and autumn in order to have the mild winters. As we suffered through five or six months of what we considered winter weather in northern Virginia, freezing rain and intermittent snow beginning as early as November and lasting into April, we dreamed of warm lazy Texas days even in December and signs of spring by late February. 

But these last couple of years since our return things seem to be going horribly wrong. This polar vortex phenomenon is wrecking our warm weather fantasy. The last few days it has actually been colder here in the Texas hill country than in northern Virginia. What the heck is going on? I had to turn the heat on. I want my global warming back. I'm willing to suffer through the drought, just give me the sunshine and warm breezes. The water in our bird bath was frozen solid this morning. And it's not even the middle of November, or won't be until tomorrow. This is not good. We may have to move to south Florida after all.