This year's almanac claims it will be an unusually harsh (hallelujah) winter in most of the United States.

We here in Dixie like cold winters. We don't get them often, but they do fabulous things like kill mosquitos. Of course, they also do bad things like kill peach crops in Florida. But somehow I think there are fewer and fewer peach crops in Florida these days. I suspect that might be a relic of my childhood, like working strawberry farms in North Carolina.

Of course, our idea of a cold winter is a Thanksgiving or Christmaswhere the high hovers around an overcast sixty two, with a slight breeze. It might even be a bit...balmy, depending on whether we are under the influence of some spent high pressure system, or lolling about under some low pressure system sneaking up from the coast.

It might even...sleet in January. Followed by one to two inches of snow in February, which would cause utter panic in the city. Every single slice on Sunbeam bread, milk, and beer (even PBR!!!) will evaporate from store shelves as the city readies itself for a blizzard of Hollywoodian proportions.

Once in a great while, we get a wallop. A real blizzard. A real ice storm or two. I recall one in the seventies that was very bad for the city. I also seem to recall reading about one at the turn of the century, and another one in the forties that knocked the city for a loop.

I myself am hoping for a real fall and real winter. I don't think I'm going to be disappointed. Doesn't it already feel like sweater weather to you? Maybe it's the remnants of the hurricane, but I swear (oh, I know I mentioned this before) I'm ready to whip out the ole fireplace and start a fire, just because it's gray and nasty outside.

Hot chocolate, anyone?