Winter?

Winter?

Getting dressed. Undergarments, check. Shirt, check. Shorts, check. Hair clip, check. Wait! Did i just say shorts? Yes you heard that right. It’s January 8, 2026 and I am putting on shorts, because if I don’t I may sweat to death.

It’s warm. An uncomfortable and unprecedented, kind of warm for winter. I’m in the midwest and this time of year, I generally have sweats on (yes, sexy I know), a sweater, and thick woolen socks on my feet. I’m usually, begging my husband to start a fire, and want to stay under a warm blanket with a good book. But not this year.

Every day I wake up and ask the resident voyeur, Alexa, what the forecast is for the day. Every day, this entire winter, it’s been, “today you can expect, sunshine and highs in the 50s, or 60’s, and lows in the 40’s.” Whahhhattt? Yup. Yesterday it was a whopping 68 degrees, when we should be complaining on how cold it is here. Kansas, has bitter cold winters. Our temperatures can get into the minus part of the scale, up to minus 10 degrees, and for days, even weeks, on end.

The cold temperatures are not the problem. Cold can be mitigated, with warm clothes and heating, or just hunkering down inside. But, we have these midwest winds, all year long, and the winds we get this time of year, cut to the bone, no matter what you wear. I often don’t go out, because I may have to stop for gas, and I DO NOT want to get out of my car for 30 seconds. It’s the kind of cold and winds, that makes your hands and fingertips freeze through your insulated leather cloves. The kind of bitter gusting winds, that require, a man to buy fireman jeans at Duluth for a ransom, just to block the gales from going through the jean fibers. That cold.

And this year, nada, zippo, nein, niet, absolutely no winter temperatures. And that’s why I’m in shorts and a t-shirt, sometime even a tank top. I actually, had the flannels put on the bed the one day we had a cold evening, and now I am thinking I need to go back to summer bedsheets.

Kansas, usually, gets a light snow before Christmas, or shortly after, and by January we get four to six inches or even a lot more. But no, not this year.

There are days when I am glad for the warmer winter, but I have to face the fact that I live here, because we have all four climates. I grew up in Florida, mostly, and I hated the winters there. Hot, with a side of heat, and for dessert, you guessed it, more heat. It doesn’t get cold until February, and then not for long. By March, you think you live in hell. Also, know that Floridians, pull out the parkas, at 75 degrees, so maybe it’s relative. That being said, while I do enjoy mild temperatures, every season’s climate, serves a purpose.

We, all need winter. Cold, hard winter, at least for a time. The frigid temperatures kill off fleas and ticks, and bacteria, and so on. It’s important. It seems, our winter had gone on vacation to the northeast and Kansas, has become California.

I’m not really, griping, I actually like not having to hideout inside to stay warm. I love not having to dress up my Lola, several times a day so she can use her outhouse, the back yard. She appreciates it too. As a chihuahua, she is a sun worshiping goddess. She literally chases the sun filled spots inside the house all day and suns herself. What a life, I know. If, only. So, its not all bad. I do hear some complaints from others.

The kind of boo hoo-ing I hear, is not from being able to be outdoors, grilling or sipping tea on the back porch. Nope, the complainers are among those who cry about climate change this and climate change that. I wont get into that argument, but I feel memories are short with humans. We had a similar winter, maybe fifteen or twenty years ago. It’s cyclical, and not a weird, we are killing the environment, phenomenon. Every so many years, we have these anomalies in seasons. With this kind of late winter, inevitably, we will be in for a harsh and bone chilling condensed winter, with heavy snowfalls. All normal. A little tidbit of history, of you all. Kansas was once a tropical state. In fact, a lot of the midwest was, in fact, tropical.

We have fossilized palm trees and other tropical botanicals, from our state, A fact, no one talks about or mentions. We were a tropical rain forest. Something, my husband is dying to see come back, so he can have a palm trees outside, As far up and west as Wyoming, had tropical plants, at one time. States like Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio, also were tropical. Imagine that. For that to happen, we would need a whole lot of global warming. I not sure those states would complain considering the winter they usually get and are getting this year. We should throw Michigan into that mix, because I bet they’d like a little summer right about now.

I think for now, I’ll just enjoy it and relish the reality, that for now, I can be in shorts and a t-shirt, and let my cashmere sweaters sleep soundly, in my closet. I’ll enjoy the smell of spring that is in the air, too. Yes, each season has a smell. I’ll write about that soon. Midwesterners, enjoy this climate change, because winter, will have its due, all too soon.