Baby, it's cold outside

Winter won't officially start for almost a month, but as far as I'm concerned, it arrived today. The temperature took a nice dip to put a chill in the air, and I drove home in insubstantial flurries but snow nonetheless.

While I'm sure this precipitous event will elicit a hue and cry around the city's water coolers, proverbial and otherwise, you'll hear no complaining from me. Fall is my favorite season, but there is something to be said for the bracing slap on the face cold weather provides. The air seems cleaner, the world sounds quieter, and life adopts a slower rhythm (at least in theory).

A hot meal is never better than when the cold is trying to creep through the doors and windows. Watching falling snow through the streetlights lends a magical quality to the environment. I could do without icy roads, the need to scrape windshields, and the preponderance of runny noses and coughing in the general public, but I won't hold winter's tag-alongs against the season.

I've lived in Ohio my entire life, so I'm accustomed to four distinct seasons. They help make daily routines a little more interesting. Sure, I suppose it would be wonderful to live where it's always sunny and seventy, but that climatic sameness has to get boring after awhile, doesn't it? Or is that what those of us entering the frostier portion of the calendar say to convince ourselves?