Indian Winter

It's 6:40 pm according to the little clock on the lower right of this computer. It's very dark out - and cold!

Just that quickly and we jump from Indian Summer to Indian Winter - a concept that I recently invented, though I feel sure it's been invented before by many others. This time it represents an earlier winter climate than usual. Up here in northern Vermont, though, early winters are quite common, at least in my short experience here of about six years. Yesterday also marked the first day of a return to standard time from daylight savings time. Again, the computer clock proved the correct and timely, excuse me, reference to this fact. "It", or some technician with a better worked out schedule system than most people, also reminded me of my daughter in law's birthday - yesteday in fact, who my friends are, and that I should back up my files. These are pretty handy little machines, eh? Back to Indian Winter...

It gets very cold up here in northern Vermont where I live. We're just six miles from the Canadian border. I once read minus 28 degrees Fahrenheit directly off a thermometer which I held in my hand on the deck outside my front door. This was my first winter up here and I was curious. It was about one o'clock in the morning and was getting colder fast! I've never measured 40 below, but I've heard people speak about it and I believe I felt it through the wall of my bedroom! The cold of winter never penetrated the insulation of my home like that before! Well, it was only 19 degrees at the kitchen window thermometer, just outside the window where I can see it, when I glanced out this morning. That's not very cold, not even for November, but it was about 80 degrees or so just a few days ago, when I wrote about Indian Summer and that's quite a contrast. Fast, sudden, and I fear too many little birds and small animals fell in the surprise of it! I feel sorry for them. Indian Winter doesn't describe this weather phenomenon. Early Winter Shock would be better!