Brrr!

I just returned from a trip to San Antonio and it was not the sunny and sixty I was expecting. When we arrived on Wednesday it was typical of South Texas - warm and humid - but during the night a "blue Norther" (that's what we call a cold front that can drop the temp forty degrees in an hour) roared in. By Thursday morning the numbers on the thermometer had plummeted and the wind was howling. For two straight nights it bottomed out in the mid-teens. I grew up in South Texas and believe me I had never seen anything like it. It fact, it was an all-time record low. There's a fountain in the courthouse square that had morphed into a beautiful ice sculpture, and the reports of frozen pipes were legion. Oh yeah, San Antonio and its environs took a major hit.

My hubby is something of a weather fanatic so I was forewarned - thank goodness! I had my Buffalo coat (so named because I bought it in Buffalo, NY) so I was good to go. Not so for most of the natives. My sister who lives in Las Vegas was there and I thought she was going to shake herself to death. My daughter on the other hand came from Pittsburgh and she said it was like a nice spring day.

So, I didn't get to sit on the patio and sip Margaritas - although I did try to eat my way through South Texas - but I made it to El Mercado where I bought a Talvera hand painted sink. I thought the store owners were going to have a fiesta for us - we were the only people in the market. What's that saying about mad dogs, Englishmen and the noon day sun? Believe me, that works in reverse.

The good news is that San Antonio is back to normal, and even better the first day of spring is only a little over two months away.

Ann DeFee
Top Gun Dad, HAR, October 2009
Hill Country Hero, HAR, February 2010