This article for Ray Spitzenberger first appeared in IMAGES for January 20, 2022, East Bernard Express, East Bernard, Texas.
You know it is cold, for Texans, that is, when Pixie, our Texas born and raised cat, won’t even go near the patio door much less go out!
The temperature was 36 degrees this morning (Sunday, January 16) when that feline refusal took place. By 10 o’clock, it was 43, not even freezing, but to cold-natured me, it felt like 23.
One of the Houston churches which we often watch, live-streamed their worship service this morning, as they usually do. Only difference, today, the heat was not working in the sanctuary, and members shivered with the pastor in the frigid air. He even suggested, jokingly, I’m sure, that they pause while all do jumping jacks. The service went on, making a joyful noise to the Lord in spite of the chill!
Feeling blessed not to be in a building without heat, I looked up the day’s weather news. They were having 8 inches of snow in Walnut, Mississippi, which is near the Tennessee border, and very intense snow bands over parts of Tennessee, with power outages due to falling tree limbs. Roads were freezing up in Georgia. So, except for our blizzard ordeal February 15, 2021, our cold weather in Texas is usually mild compared to other States, even Southern States.
I suppose our over-reaction to cold, even mildly cold, weather is due to our usually mild Houston-area winters. There was only one decade that I know of when we had more snow than in any other era, — that was the 1980’s. Googling this, I turned up the fact that it has snowed 94 times in Houston since 1981. Well, if you have lived in this area as long as I have, you have to agree that, for the most part, we have pretty mild winters. So when it turns a bit more wintry than we are used to, our actions can be pretty extreme, — like calling off school when a few snowflakes start falling.
A few years ago when I was serving as pastor of St. Paul Lutheran Church in Wallis, one morning before worship started, my acolytes looked out the Sacristy door and saw snowflakes falling. Before I could stop them, they flew out into the churchyard, and, fully robed, they lay on the grass with its fine dusting of snow and tried to make snow angels. It stopped snowing before the ground was fully covered. Not only were their nice white robes wet, but they were also covered with grass and dirt stains! Only in Texas do we over react like that to a little white stuff!
By now, it has warmed up to the 50’s, and the sun is still shining rather brightly. Such a sight is reassuring to me, who likes the temperature above seventy. My hope for the rest of the winter is that our Texas weather continues its usual mild manner, and we will be spared another February 15.
-o-
Ray Spitzenberger is a retired WCJC teacher, a retired LCMS pastor, and author of three books, It Must Be the Noodles, Open Prairies, and Tanka Schoen.