The Office

Night comes early these days, these days of winter in north Texas. The spine-snapping cold forecast by the meteorological brain trust has, so far, failed to materialize. This makes me happy, though I do feel that I've missed far too many winters in recent years. Living in north Texas used to guarantee actual seasons (well, good facsimiles thereof), unlike the odd wintertime cold of the tropical climate on the Texas coast where I grew up.

When I was a child, I went swimming in a salt-water bay, went fishing in the bay and in nearby waterways, and visited the spectacular world protected by the Aransas National Wildlife Preserve...or whatever it's called at the moment. That was a strange life, though I did not know it at the time. I didn't know enough to realize that warm tropical winters, punctuated with blue northers that could freeze one's soul, were odd. I know it now. But they were odd only in the sense that the periods of cold seemed out of place on the tropical coast. Now, they rarely occur any more. And that's truly odd.

North Texas winters are getting less predictable in some ways, more predictable in others. It's a safe bet that, every year, there will be at least one major "ice event" and lots of unpleasantly cold, rainy weather. Unpleasantly cold, in north Texas, varies according to the humidity. It's not a safe bet these days to assume that we will have more than a very brief period of weather that can be realistically called "winter weather."

The early nights of North Texas send me indoors early these days, so I miss both the dropping temperatures of the evening and the light of day fading so quickly into darkness. I miss that. I really miss that. Time to explore the world, whether close or far away. I understand the office far too well...time to explore the world beyond.