This past week was one to remember. We probably had one of the shortest fall seasons on record and winter temperatures arrived one day later. One short cartoon mentioned that Texas runners did not run on Wednesday as they were busy looking for their winter running clothes. This is a bit of an exaggeration as it did cool off a bit, but a light jacket or long sleeved shirt was all that was really needed for most everyday runners. A few runners may have donned a knitted sock cap to run in, but that is sort of a fashion thing now so nothing unusual about that. It usually takes a period of a few weeks of near freezing temperatures before runners resort to putting on tights for their legs and gloves on the hands.
There was another report in the news this past week that mentioned over half of the United States is under a snow or blizzard warning. Runners in central and south Texas have a hard time imagining running in snow. Blizzard conditions are so rare for south Texas runners it is difficult for them to even imagine what it is like. About the only source of a blizzard is what they have seen in movies or television programs.
Having grown up about 60 miles south of the Canadian border in North Dakota, blizzards were a regular part of winter. As a youngster it was fun to hear that there was a blizzard coming. For a young kid that meant there was a chance that there would be no school that day. When the blizzard came and the schools closed, that was a good day for kids. What did we do for that day? We went to school. We knew that the custodian would be there and nobody would be in the gym. Someone would bring a basketball and we played a game of basketball or some made up game all day. After the wind had created huge snow drifts we went out and dug snow caves in them and felt like we were Eskimos. The one downside as you grew older was that after the blizzard you had to shovel off the sidewalks and driveways of all the snow. I was unfortunate in that we had a long driveway and that turned into a full afternoon task.
