Pre-Season Blues

The simple fact that I am even going to write about this topic is, to me, more than a bit depressing.

And no, I'm not discussing Pre-Season football -pro or college -either.

Picture this, if you will. About 2-3 weeks ago, it was so bloody hot here -and I think over the greater part of the country too -with temps that reached record-breaking highs of 102, 103 even, I believe one day it was supposed to have hit 105 over in State College which is a mere 33 miles (as the crow flies) away from us. Phew, Baby! That's hot for this area! (And, it was the nasty hot with tons of humidity accompanying it too.)

And yet, just two evenings ago, when I went to take Sammy for a walk, before leaving the house I threw on a nice warm sweatshirt so as not to freeze my butt off while strolling down the street with him!

And, I've been wearing that sweatshirt almost daily since then too -at some point or other during the day and especially in the evening hours. Because it was -to my body anyway -downright nippy here.

It's such a depressing thought to me because for openers, spring seemed to never want to get here fully this year and summer was equally slow in showing up then as well. My garden was drenched early on, then over the past so many weeks of heat and little to no rain, I was worrying it was all going to dry up and die on me -what few things I did have growing out there!

And the wearing of a sweatshirt now, in mid-August, in the evening, or even to bed too, wearing a sweatshirt during the day now as well, smacks to me of a full-fledged warning of what is ahead for us.

Just around the bend, weather-wise, that tells me to get ready, be prepared, because not only will Jack Frost be nippy at noses and toes, but Mother Nature will be redecorating the scenery in shorter order than I really do want to think about with the other weather that I don't fully appreciate at. all! Snow, ice, freezing rain, sleet -all those things will soon be on their way and along with them, fuel bills out the wazoo too, ya know.

I don't LIKE to drive in winter conditions but if I have to go out, I will and I can manage fairly well too with the little jeep. Old as my little buggy is, it does have four-wheel drive and it generally is pretty good to me if it is necessary to venture out. But unless I absolutely HAVE to go someplace, when the weather is bad, snowy anyway, I try to avoid driving then. Ice is a whole different ball game and I wouldn't venture out in that kind of driving issue unless it was an absolute, life and death type situation! Mainly because I don't care how good a vehicle with four-wheel drive may be, on ice, it is a totally different ball game!

What does worry me though now with winter just around the corner is Mandy, who is looking for a job -at least a part-time job, preferably one though with full-time hours and of course, those all important benefits too.

However, around this area, with her skill set and experience, there aren't very many job opportunities available at any time and definitely not much at all here now with the economy tanking so much. So, she's probably going to have to resort to heading over to State College to look for better employment potentials and that means driving over two mountains, both with roads that can be treacherous during the winter months.

Her car isn't the best for those conditions either as it's a small car,http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif and no four-wheel drive of course either. Much as I don't want to think of this as an option, should she find a job over in that neck of the woods, I think she'd also best give considerable thought to the idea of having a snow chain set up available for her tires -just to be on the safe side, ya know.

I know if I suggest something along those lines to her she's going to have a bit of a hissy fit with me because she's never utilized anything like that thus far in her life and, for that matter, with close to fifty years of driving under my own belt now, I've never resorted to carrying chains either. But a lot of my driving in horrendous winter conditions I also did have a vehicle that I was able to put various things into the trunk area that gave me a whole lot of added weight which also then provided a good bit of extra traction for me then. Her truck set-up on her vehicle might not be amenable to doing the things I was able to do with my vehicles in the past -my little Chevy chevette or my Subaru Justys -both had a trunk area that I could easily have some put put in this big flat piece of metal in my cars. (I think my ex-husband said itwas a portion of some kind of blade from some piece of heavy equipment -it weighed around 300-400 pounds any way so it took a couple strong men to lift it in and out of my truck areas) Whatever it was, whatever the weight was too, all I know is that it worked pretty doggone good for me over those years.

Anyway, it is a bit depressing to think that summer is now starting to move out on us. And I, for one, do hate to see it leave after such a brief visit as it's been -or seemed to be -this year. And, I suppose since there's not diddly squat I can do to change that, it won't hurt to think a bit ahead, to get prepared, will it?