How long do you leave your Christmas decorations up?

[Pumpkin_Head]

Unfortunately I do not have a motorcycle right now. I had to sell the bike to pay various expenses because of the fire of 2015, and medical expenses. Also, as I get older, it gets harder to deal with traffic jams where I have to hold the bike up for long periods of time. I still have a motorcycle classification on my driver's license, but if I do get another motorcycle, it will most likely have to be a trike, or a much smaller bike then I'm use to.

Trikes are as much or more then a mid-sized luxury SUV any more, so if I even think in terms of a trike, it would have to be something used. A smaller bike, like a 300 cc or 400 cc would be very difficult to take a cross country trip on, but would be a much less expensive alternative.

Besides all that, I really need a better car then the one I'm presently driving, and would really like to have something with all wheel drive.

Mike

[Murfreesboro]

I'm sorry to hear about your motorcycle, but I can certainly understand that a car comes first.

[Pumpkin_Head]

That's for sure. Last week, we hit day time high temperatures in the single digits. That would not be very much funon motorcycle. Come to think of it, it's no picnic in a car either. Those are the kind of days to heat up a can of soup and curl up with a good horror movie.

Mike

[Murfreesboro]

Lol! I like the way you think.

Our winter has been uncommonly mild so far. The plants think it's spring. Forsythia, quince, and daffodils were blooming in January. I doubt we'll get any snow this year.

[Pumpkin_Head]

Sounds nice. We're experiencing a comparative mild Winter this year. Last year was a bit more severe. The pipes at my former apartment building froze up, temps were well below zero, and the snow was 5 inches deep. To boot, the parking lot outside my former apartment building was a solid sheet of ice, and treacherous to walk on, much less drive on. My move from there to Streator was amidst all this Winter mayhem.

I'm hoping that by Friday March 13th, it will be nice and sunny enough to get the barbecue out. "Little Halloween" is always better with a grilled burger.

Mike

[Murfreesboro]

And I was wrong. We have snow today. I took a walk in it with the flakes flying. Very pretty! It's not very cold, though. Mid-30s, maybe a half inch on the ground.

[Pumpkin_Head]

I woke up yesterday morning to 5 inches of snow to shovel yesterday morning. There's an 'old saying' here in Illinois: "If you don't like the weather here, wait 5 minutes." However, I'm STILL looking forward to my first barbecue, and a short 'haunted road trip.'

And, I STILL hope that temps are warm and there's no rain on Friday March 13th so I can grill up a burger or bratwurst patty for supper while I watch "It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown," and a couple of other horror movies.

Mike

[Andybev01]

So far this winter we've been blessed with mild temperatures. Right now, it's almost 55° it's overcast, but we need the rain. .

[Pumpkin_Head]

I have to say that for Illinois, this Winter has been pretty mild so far, but it is still early February, and I've seen it snow as late ad mid April.

Mike

[Murfreesboro]

I really doubt we'll get more snow. I could be wrong, though.

[Pumpkin_Head]

I wish I could say that. Illinois is not out of the proverbial woods in terms of snow until the very end of April. We are also supposed to get another cold snap by Friday with a day time high of only 9 degrees and an over night low of -5 degrees. NOT looking forward to that!

I think I'll heat up a can of soup after I get home from doing my taxes that day.


Mike

[Murfreesboro]

Oh, wow, those are some cold temps! Good soup weather, though!

[Pumpkin_Head]

Yup. I still have two more discs of "The Haunting of Hill House" to screen so I'll probably save them for my soup on Friday. The bad news however, is that I have to do my taxes on Friday. My brother in Frankfort Ill is going to help me out with that this year, so I will have to drive all the way up there from Streator in that deep freeze. I hope and pray my old car can make it.

Mike

[Murfreesboro]

I hope so, too, Mike! Good luck!

[Pumpkin_Head]

Thanks, Murf. I should be okay. The weather report was change. Instead of a high of 9 we're supposed to get a high of 10. Hopefully I'll get a good sized tax return.

Mike