Holding your breath

It seems both the weather and the veg business is holding their collective breath as the Christmas and New Year's holidays approach.  It was 35 degrees when I walked the family pooch this morning at 6 a.m.. Last year at this time, that would have been the high temp for the week.  The weatherman says some snow showers tonight, but no real deep freeze on the horizon.  I harvested a couple pounds of beautiful spinach for supper last night.  It went very well with some sauteed onions and a can of black beans.  There is still plenty more of that in the garden.  Meanwhile, the produce business is moribund.  The squeeze on the middle class has seemingly lowered demand for most vegetables.  I think many people are saving their more limited monetary firepower for the holiday meals and entertainments.  So they skimp in the weeks leading up to Christmas and Channukah and the result is sluggish sales for the chains and food service wholesalers.  I guess we need snow and tax cuts to get the season moving.  Everyone hum a few bars of White Christmas....