It’s getting very cold here — twenties at night and only low 40’s in the day — and we just got about ten inches of snow. I must admit that, mentally, I’m not prepared for winter this year. Maybe it’s my age or too much sitting or just left over inertia from the COVID days, but I seem to be low energy, achy and stiff.

Hallowe’en’s passed and that means November is upon us. I’ve convinced myself that September and October are really just Fall and not too cold or snowy, but November is decidedly Winter, as evidenced by merely looking outside. Of course, since this is Colorado, the sun is shining and the snow is melting (or sublimating) away slowly and won’t stay around too long. But the nights are staying cold and the snowmelt will refreeze, making the roads and sidewalks slippery.

I do enjoy Colorado’s Hallowe’en weather, though. The down-side is that sometimes the kids have to wear heavy coats over their costumes and going house-to-house can be a frigid trudge. But I remember that, as a kid in Texas, my mummy costume had to be unwound frequently due to the heat and heavy sweating. Hallowe’en never felt festive if it was 80 degrees at night and you wished people would hand out cold water or pop rather than popcorn balls or candy.

But this year, in Colorado, the sidewalks were mostly clear and the snow had stopped a couple of days before, so foot travel wasn’t difficult and we got a good supply of Trick or Treaters. That means, of course that all the good candy was handed out and we’re left with my least favorites.

I haven’t done any snow shoveling yet, but our neighbor graciously cleared the front walkways for us. But I did have to plow through the snow in the backyard yesterday to take out the trash and compost, and realized that my wardrobe is ill prepared for the cold and snow. For one thing, I had to put on socks for the first time in months! It was bad enough having to trade in my house slippers for shoes, but wading through snow was not enjoyable.

When I first moved here, over forty years ago, I usually felt obligated to shovel my elderly neighbor’s walks — although sometimes Mrs. Shaller would beat me to the punch. She was an old rancher’s daughter married to a railroad detective and she could handle just about anything. Of course, she and her husband were about my current age back then, so I guess I shouldn’t feel bad about my current neighbor occasionally shoveling for us now.  

The annual succession of winter holidays is here — Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas and then New Year’s — so, it’s time to start making lists. We have a couple of November birthdays in the family, so we need to prepare for those, too, and Christmas is looming. Since much of our family is out-of-town, it’s necessary to buy gifts early to allow for shipping time.

I’ve been remiss in many of my fall chores, including raking up leaves. Now, the heavy snow will have compacted them on the lawns, making it harder to rake them up when the snow melts, but at least now they won’t blow into my neighbor’s previously-raked yard. I’m not a total slacker — I did get the outside water system turned off before the recent freeze, and I mostly cleaned out the garden beds. The resulting handful of pumpkins and table full of green tomatoes rest comfortably inside, ripening.  

With a few remaining squash and some to-be-picked greens and carrots, the pumpkins and tomatoes allow me to hang on to my illusion of fall a little longer, although I must admit that the snow and cold outside my window makes a pretty convincing case that winter has come.

Brr!