Some days, it just doesn’t pay to be an informed person. A man can stand a bit of trouble when it comes his way. A woman can tolerate some degree of disappointment when it happens from time to time. But to see it coming at you like a train can make you feel like jumping right off the track. Even when your section of track happens to be suspended over a big gully. You just might go right ahead and jump anyway. Take your chances with the rocks. There are times when we’d like to know ahead of time and others when we’d just as soon only to have to endure the train wreck and be spared the knowing about it ahead of time. Not have to endure the dread and the event, too.

Well, Gerty, I tell ya, I’ve ruined that for the Old Minus Thirty Artic Express headed our way; I just took a look at the twenty-four-hour forecast for Saint Joe. It ain’t pretty!

Today, our high will be below zero. Tomorrow morning at this time, the prediction is for minus nineteen. That does NOT include the wind chill, which will send ‘er down another fourteen or fifteen degrees. If I end up on a jury trying a manslaughter case in which the defendant is accused of killing someone who recently talked about “global warning,” I can guarantee a hung jury if not an outright acquittal!

Truth is, I actually am glad to know about this next round of record setting lows for Saint Joe. I’ll go ahead and do that heat tape on the water pipes project I’ve been putting off for a while. Might be I ought to apply an even more diligent preparation in response to those warnings I’ve been hearing about the Lord’s Day.

H. Arnett
1/08/10