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Health & Fitness

Oh Snow!

What happened to autumn? It was here just a minute ago. It must be under all this SNOW!

Last week, when it was sunny and clear and autumnal, the little voice in my head said I should not go birding but stay home and attend to the last of the pre-winter chores.

Cutting back the overgrown rose of sharons. Pulling in the pots of cannas. Mowing the lawn. Weeding.

I don't usually listen to that voice but this time I did. Considering the snow that fell at a December-like pace Saturday, I am glad I did.

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The only problem was, I hadn't pulled in the pots of vegetables. I had hoped the remaining tomatoes and peppers, including some very small ones fooled into growing by the milder September weather, would ripen just a bit more.

So I left the pots where they were, figuring I had time. Besides, by the time I finished the other chores I was sore and couldn't lift a thing, including my spirits.

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Then came the weather report about Saturday. Significant snow in Morris County before Halloween?

Out I went in the pre-dawn on Friday before work to pull in the tomato pots. Out I went in the post-dusk after I got home to pull tear apart the cage I constructed to keep out the deer and squirrels and chipmunks and anything else, then take the  pepper pots. Everything went onto my enclosed porch where, while still cold, at least the plants were dry.

To all my neighbors wondering what the hell I was doing with my noisy garden cart at those hours, I'm sorry.

Chores done, around 2 p.m. Saturday we lost power. I used the remaining hours of daylight to pick the tomatoes and put the peppers into smaller pots and bring them in the house while getting everything else stowed away on the porch.

My house was without power for over 12 hours. It got cold and I was worried about the food in the fridge but we were luckier than many - we got power back when others haven't, and no large branches fell on us. (I'd go out every so often during Saturday to shake ice off my young dogwood and the deer fencing and the branches snapping at other houses sounded like rifle fire.) 

Obviously this storm and the huge drop in temperature caught me and others off guard. But consider what we've had this year. We have had some of the hottest and wettest months on record. We had the worst Category 1 hurricane - Irene - this region has ever seen. Now we've broken the record for the earliest major snowstorm.

Many people don't believe in global warming or climate change or whatever it is called nowadays. I do. I know I've been saying, "This weather is NOT normal" alot this year and for the past several years. Haven't you? Do you get the same helpless feeling I do that pollution from elsewhere may be affecting New Jersey's weather?

Some may like having more time to wear shorts and flipflops but eventually there will be winter cold - even in New Jersey. This Halloween storm could be a taste of what's to come.

Cold comfort.

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