Spring or Summer or Winter Still?

Sitting here looking at the current weather as I have my first cup of coffee I am trying to decide what the season might be. As I was pouring that cup, the weather station on the wall was telling me 68 with a 84% humidity. That comes close to meeting my definition of summertime weather. Then my morning email tells me the temperature right now in Boone, NC are 32 degrees. Floyd, Va is reporting 36 degrees. Now those temperatures scream winter to me (granted I am a southern boy by training and birth so what do I know about winter). All I can say to all my friends on the Blue Ridge is throw another log on the fire and pull the covers back up, it ain't time to plant them gardens just yet even though the sun keeps teasing you with 70's this year.

As I was out driving the John Deere around the backyard last evening I notice the Red Oak tree I planted when we first move out here is covered with little curled red leaves, just opening and starting to grow. That's pretty much the last of the trees to leaf out this year. Even the Mimosas have been showing green for a while.

Here is an interesting tidbit from the middle of an article on the erosion of power in the White House...

A telling sign of America's inability to solve chronic problems is the IMF's discussion of our addiction to oil -- something President Bush talks plenty about but lacks the political will or congressional support to change. The IMF has gathered some shocking statistics: U.S. gasoline consumption as a share of gross domestic product is nearly five times that in the other major industrialized countries; gasoline accounts for 43 percent of U.S. oil consumption vs. 15 percent in other countries; fuel efficiency in America is 25 percent lower than in the European Union and 50 percent lower than in Japan. No wonder the world doubts our seriousness on energy issues.

Source: David Ignatius - A Power Outage At the White House - washingtonpost.com

Interesting numbers, don't you think?