I opened the door this morning and peered out. First I glanced to the left, then to the right … there were no black cats or ladders lurking about so I ventured out. One cannot be too careful since it is Friday the 13th after all. While I do not suffer from “paraskavedekatriaphobia” (or the fear of Friday the 13th), if I’d have seen a black cat coming at me, I would have crossed the street in a heartbeat. I certainly did not want to have another angst-filled odyssey like this past Monday. Well … there were no chilling effects this morning, except perhaps the temperature! I knew before I left it was windy, but to paraphrase Gordon Lightfoot’s ode about the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald – I think the “Gales of November came early”. The wind was whipping around out there pretty ferociously and despite layering up in a tee-shirt and a sweat suit, I was shivering. A long-sleeved turtleneck sweater would have been the better choice and speaking of turtles, ten minutes into my walk, I was almost turtle-like, as I started slinking down into my top and pulling my hands into my sweatshirt sleeves to warm up.

Then, just as I was musing that in yesterday’s post I had suggested cooler temps would be nice, I glanced at the sky which was an ominous dark gray. It was that same kind of ugly sky that portends snow might be on the way. Snow way!!! This morning I was walking loops around Ford Park and a house across from the park had a wreath with snowmen decorations hanging on the front door. There must be some unwritten rule, similar to not wearing white before Memorial Day or after Labor Day, that dictates one cannot put out Christmas decorations before Halloween. This would be fodder for Jeff Foxworthy to add another sentence to his spiel about “you know you’re a Michigander if …” – yup, the calendar dictates one event but you celebrate another.

Well, those of us who live in Michigan are used to the widely varying temps and as the saying goes “if you don’t like the weather in Michigan, wait five minutes”… the way I see it, we Michiganders are made of sturdy stuff and who wants to live in a place where the weather is the same all year long anyway? All those who are smitten with the Mitten raise your glove-encased hand now on this near-frosty Friday the 13th.