HOW Cold is It?

My mother used to say it was “Cold enough to freeze the horns off a brass billy goat”

Sounds pretty cold to me. Back…way back…when I was much younger I used to care for horses, and winters could be a real challenge. Especially when the waterlines froze. Horses drink a lot of water. I remember one time the very steep walkway between house and stable froze into a sheet of ice. We walked down the snowy hill for a couple of days!

Twenty years of living in Southern California can thin the blood, so when we moved to New Mexico in 2006 that first winter hit us hard. My husband more than myself since he was a California boy born and bred. Since he didn’t have to get up and go to work he could enjoy the snow from inside a well insulated house.

Whether we’re going to blame climate change or the storm furies (I’ve delved back into Jim Butcher’s The Furies of Calderon for some light reading) New Mexico winters have become very cold. Right now (7:15 PM, the weather app on my Droid shows me a projected low of 18 degrees and a current temperature of 11. Warmer and clear tomorrow except for the snow flurries. I’ve learned to use the redneck method of

Jason knows the best place when it’s cold

weather information. Send one of the dogs out. If they come in with snow on their backs, it’s snowing. If

they go out, do their business fast, and rush back in, it’s cold. Jason doesn’t have the ear fringing of the other Salukis so when he comes back in he asks for a brisk ear rub.

So how cold is it? Cold enough to keep me inside writing. So I guess that’s cold enough.