The Crystal Coast, Salt water on my feet

Winter comes after us

Just when I thought we were heading in the right direction in temperatures, someone took down the border fence with Canada.

What this scene along the Intracoastal Waterway looks beautiful, the temperature was pretty close to thirty-two Fahrenheit.

Last week we even managed some snow here on the beach.  The snow did not last long.  It was an ephemeral brush with snow.

That was mainly due to the snow being less than one inch in total.  It also did not stick to the roads or driveways in most cases.

Given that it was not life a real snow, and certainly did not meet Canadian standards for a serious snow.

I was a little irritated at first but I managed to get over it and enjoy our snow day.

Based on talking to residents this is a very rare occurrence down here on the coast.  One neighbor told me that he had been living here for six years, and this was his first snow.

One of the ladies at the tourist bureau told me that this was the coldest winter that she has seen in twenty years.

I think she might be right.  Some Canadian friends have told us that this is the coldest winter since 1982 when we lived on a farm north of Fredericton, New Brunswick.

In spite of the colder than normal weather, we have been pretty lucky.  Areas to the the west, north, and east of us got much more snow.  Even the northern Outer Banks got three inches compared to our one half inch.

I am actually more concerned about all the cloudy weather that seems to have descended upon us.  This lack of blue sky is really abnormal.  However, I try to look at it positively.  Areas to the north of us are going to get whacked with ice and snow.

The rest of the week we are supposed to be in the fifties except for Wednesday when we have a chance to get into the upper sixties.

Given this is one of the coldest winters that people can remember, I guess that is okay.

Most of the time the weather is a huge subject here on the coast.  With the economy deteriorating all over the country, the weather, even when it is bad, is taking a back seat.

I think we are hoping for better weather soon and some good economic news.  My efforts in real estate continue to make progress.  Given the state of the economy, I can only pleased to be going forward.

When get deprived of blue sky and good news, I end up looking at pictures.  I created a short presentation of Crystal Coast scenery and posted it online at this website.

This is a little bit of an experiment so you might have to center it on your screen.  Once it has loaded, it will advance one slide with each click of the mouse.

There are a couple of beach scenes in there to help anyone get through the winter months.  If you do not have Quicktime installed on your computer, you will have to install it to view the pictures.

You can find the free download for Windows here on Apple's site.

I hope before it gets time to do another post, that our weather is back to normal.

Someone wrote me and said how neat it was to have snow at the beach.  That would only be true for folks who did not live in Canada for fifteen years.

Fortunately the minus forty temperatures stay well north of the Mason-Dixon line.

A good winter scorecard

Winter weather is always a topic of conversation.  This year our friends to the north have had a rough go of it in early winter. 

Today a blizzard hit the Canadian Maritimes.  I think the northwest part of the United States is also getting hit with a storm.

Yesterday was a beautiful day here on the coast. Today has not been as nice with cool temperatures keeping most of us inside.

I snapped the picture with the post yesterday at Third Street Beach when it was 61F.  That is not bad for December 31.

Later we drove over the Point at Emerald Isle where sand was drifting over four wheel drive access ramp. It is something of a relief to be dealing with drifting sand instead of drifting snow.

The wind was not strong enough for the sand blasting that you can sometimes get at the beach, but it was enough to make people search out more sheltered areas of the beach for their walks.

Being on the beach at all on December 31 is something of a victory as far as I am concerned.  We are in the depths of winter, so each day we can steal on the beach makes winter one day shorter.

The long range forecast for the east coast is a toss-up for the rest of the winter.  I know that I will be rooting for a short, warm winter.

Based on the number of New York and New Jersey cars in the parking lot at the Emerald Isle grocery store, I would venture to say a number of northern residents have already voted with some travel dollars to escape some of winter's harshness.