Tough Sledding

It's 50 degrees at 7 a.m. on a January Monday.  Most of the snow cover is gone and it looks like no replacement is immenent.  Temps will fall through the week and we should be near seasonal norms by the weekend, but the January thaw has brought back the reality that winter is not what it used to be here on the NCR.  The outdoor columnist for the local paper lamented on Sunday that many of the local ice fishing derbies, a staple of wintertime sports in the North Country will likely be cancelled or postponed.  Whiteface mountain will be living up to its nickname, "Iceface", as temps fall and most of the rest of the winter sports will be on life support.  Fortunately, it is also seed ordering time, so my sport of choice is sitting in a warm living room surrounded by catalogs with pictures of beautiful produce.  Daydreaming of peppers, tomatoes and melons and temps in the 80s.  That is my wintertime sport of choice.