Fittingly cold

Okay, so now it is cold here. The striking thing is that the days are so paradoxically bright and sunny yet never clear 32 F. On Sunday it did snow, just 30 minutes away in Raleigh and all along a narrow band through the middle of the state, including Mike's parents in Fayetteville. But not us. Mild disappointment.

I did my bit for the national economy today by going out to gaze at consumer goods. Oddly, few people were at the big local mall called Southpoint, though they did arrive just as I was leaving. Southpoint is one of those nouveaux malls that are built from scratch to look like a redeveloped industrial area with mismatched store fronts. I hate malls, and I only mildly dislike this one. But one thing I really like there is the collection of public art, bronze statues of children in various universal acts of frolic. One in particular has a wheelchair bound little boy playing frisbee with a dog who resembles Emmett. All these statues, though, depict obviously vernal children clad in shorts and tank tops, which, when they are bound in ice, make them rather disturbing. I had to snap a pic for everyone.

I like the cold, which befits the season. Jet, a documented Cal-Bred Appendix Quarterhorse, also seems to have gotten used to this scheme surprisingly well in her newly thickened coat. Emmett, whose coat was bred into him for the rigors of borderlands Scotland, is by far the best acclimated to all this. But for me, this is the perfect environment in which to indulge my well-known exuberant love for chunky sweaters.