WEATHERING THE WEATHER

Here's an anecdote from my past life in the television news business.

I was working in Phoenix one winter when a national governor's meeting was being held in the Valley of the Sun.

I got a telephone call from a reporter in Buffalo, New York where winter meant WINTER!

In my chat with him he asked what the weather was like and I told him it was around 75 degrees and sunny.

He groaned and said something like "You really know how to rub it in, don't you."

I then added that the conference wasn't really going on in Phoenix but in a suburb called Paradise Valley.

He responded with a sarcastic "Oh, thanks a lot!"

Those were good times for me.

I am still in Arizona but now about 80 miles northwest of Greater Phoenix and around forty-one-hundred feet higher.

True, we are further south than Denver, Colorado but our elevation is nearly the same at around 5 thousand feet.

And it's a bright sunny day here but the temperature as I'm typing this at 11 a.m. is only 39 degrees.

And while I grew up in North Dakota, only about 50 miles from Canada, I've been gone a long time and have spent over half my life in Arizona.

My blood has thinned and I'm shivering and complaining about the cold a lot.

But unlike the other Sunshine State, Florida, we do not have 8 inches of snow on the ground!

And to my way of thinking that is a blessing!

So we struggle along here in the sunny Southwest.

I think I can get through it until Summer is back and I can complain about how blasted hot it is.