Oh Snap

I woke up this morning, and everything was frozen. A hard freeze! In FEBRUARY! Can you imagine? I know that those of you in northern states are shaking your heads (and those of you I call on a regular basis to gloat about the balmy 70 degree winter weather are giggling into your scarves and mittens), but I do have good reason to protest.

First, I am a flower person. A summer-blooming perennial, if you will. You know, one of those people who slowly gets quieter and quieter as the winter progresses - not depressed, or sad (my sympathies to those with severe Seasonal Affective Disorder), but just more...withdrawn. More and more blacks, browns and grays come out of the closet. Always approaching zero, but never quite. And then, usually sometime around late February...Spring! Sunlight, and warmth, and I'm up and off. Happy days are here again. I don't walk out of the house naked, as some women do, when warm weather hits, but you can definitely see a difference, as colors poke out of the closet into my daily wardrobe.

And I really believed it was here to stay! Plus, our local extension said I could plant my tomatoes in February! And tomatoes are the greatest of hot-weather vegetables, aren't they? (settle down, watermelon and squash people) The short of it was, I was duped.

In other news, I'm thoroughly enjoying my work at work. We're working on an exciting new E-Government and Libraries initiative in the State of Florida. Did you know that in many communities, libraries and librarians are providing assistance with E-Government information searching and forms? Well they are, and now that we've cut our property taxes, and library funding is cut, we're wondering, "who is going to help all those people who aren't fortunate enough to have home access to the internet?" Sigh. But, this blog isn't about work. That's just so you would know I still have a job ("Tommy, you know you ain't got no job."), for those of you who wonder how I manage to spend all of my time gardening, cooking and knitting, when I claim to be employed and working on my Ph.D.

Despite the cold snap, spring has sprung here in North Florida. The peas are sprouting, I'm working on a sweater, and I am happy as can be. Garden pictures sometime soon.