18-22-26-18-17-23

So reads the string of forecast low temperatures for this week at the top of the front page of today's Gainesville Sun. We have already been experiencing sub-freezing mornings here for three days or so, and I'm getting used to it. In fact, it is amazing how quickly I adapt to changes in temperature. As long as they stick around for a while, that is. Had the temperatures climbed right back up, I would have had a much more difficult time handling this. In any event, we are talking about record lows for this time of year (the average low is around 42 degrees).

Which brings me to a conjecture about where one should live. If I had a personal attachment to snow, then I would want to live in an area that had a guaranteed snowfall (which lasted) every year. If not, then I would want to stay in a place like here in northern Florida, where it can occasionally get cold, but is usually very dry on those occasions (it hasn't snowed in Gainesville since 1989). The reason is simple, actually. The worst time with cold weather, as I see it, is when the rain is falling and freezing on the road (and car windshields). Any snow that does falls is very temporary, sloshy (is that a word?) and dirty. The kind of idyllic winter wonderland you see on Christmas cards, with horse-drawn sleighs and country scenes, only exists either at a certain altitude level or at a certain latitude.

So, by this reasoning, (and presuming I don't live in the temperate Pacific coastal areas) if I didn't live in northern Florida (or the southernmost parts of the Deep South), I think I would rather live in a place like New England or Michigan than--say--Atlanta, Nashville, or Charlotte. In those cities, it seems to me that I would get all of the worst effects of winter weather with few of the benefits. Then again, I never had to endure a snow blizzard.

But, back to this article's title, I don't recall ever having experienced such a long chain of substantially sub-freezing mornings in Gainesville. Usually, this time of the year it occasionally dips down deep for two or three days, climbs back up for a couple more, and then dips back down as the next cold front passes through. Not this time, though. But it is dry here---oh so dry!