I f***ing hate winter

Got up this morning to a balmy 2 with a -24 wind chill factor. Yea. And before you Northerners start in with your disgustingly low temps that go on for months, understand that it's harder to go from a week of 50s into a few days of single digits. You get lulled into a false sense of security and end up losing your gloves in between Arctic fronts.

So posting has been light due to intermittent loss of electricity and wifi. Sometimes singularly, sometimes in tandem. I promise once things thaw out I'll get back on the horse. In the meantime, here's a joke.

It's late fall and the Indians on a remote reservation in North Dakota  asked their new chief if the coming winter was going to be cold  or mild. Since he was a chief in a modern society, he had never been taught the old secrets.  When he looked at the sky, he couldn't tell what the winter was going to be like. Nevertheless, to be on the safe side, he told his tribe that the winter was indeed  going to be cold and that the members of the village should collect firewood to be prepared. But, being a practical leader, after several days, he got an idea. He went to the phone booth,  called the National Weather Service and asked, 'Is the coming winter going to be cold?' 'It looks like this winter is going to be quite cold,' the meteorologist  at the weather service responded. So the chief went back to his people and told them to collect  even more firewood in order to be prepared. A week later, he called the National Weather Service again.  'Does it still look like it is going to be a very cold winter?'  'Yes,' the man at National Weather Service again replied, 'it's going to be a very cold winter.' The chief again went back to his people and ordered them  to collect every scrap of firewood they could find. Two weeks later, the chief called the National Weather Service again.  'Are you absolutely sure that the winter is going to be very cold?' 'Absolutely,' the man replied.  'It's looking more and more like it is going  to be one of the coldest winters we've ever seen.' 'How can you be so sure?' the chief asked. The weatherman replied, 'The Indians are collecting a fuckload of firewood' The lesson:  Don't trust what the government tells you.