Just walk outside

Is it an early Spring or is it me?

If this is Global Warming™, then thank God for it. Last summer seemed particularly mild. This winter, the mildest I have seen around here in all the years we've lived in America's Third World County. I happen to like cold weather (on can always layer on more clothing; a certain minumum is required in hot weather... *heh*), but my wife, primarily because of PPS, cannot handle extremes of heat and cold, so the weather of the last year has been really helpful there.

Benefits?

Look at those crocuses peeking out early!

Trees are budding! (OK, that means allergens, but there are non-drug ways to handle that!)

Almost shirtsleeve weather pretty much from mid-January on (apart from a little early light frost before sunrise).

Dogs eating less!! (They are outside dogs and need more food in cold weather; I'm a tightwad. Therefore, less eating, less dogfood purchases, happy tightwad. *heh*)

Winter birds joined by other, more "Spring" birds picking birdfood off the deck rail (giving joy to me, the dogs, and the cats watching through the french doors).

Did I mention trees budding? The hils behind our house are turning green again—in February!

Sure, there's the possibility of a late freeze and some snow as late as March, but it's seeming more and more like this Winter is going down as one of the most (climactically) pleasant in memory.

What's the downside of Global Warming™? Well, the doom and gloom crowd (who only a few years ago were predicting a new ice age) would have us believe that mass starvation and economic depression, etc., are the most likely outcomes. Pull the other one. During the last global warming period, Vikings were farming Greenland. Right. That land of ice and snow was a net exporter of farming goods a thoudand years ago. The warming of that time produced such bumper crops in northern Europe that population boomed in response (and yes, rat population boomed as well and so did the bubonic plague—things we know how to deal with, now).

So, regardless of the doom and gloom crowd, I say if this is global warming, bring it on!

"Oh, what a beautiful mornin',
Oh, what a beautiful day.
I got a beautiful feelin'
Ev'rything's goin' my way..."