Bi-Polar Weather

It appears winter is upon us. It also appears I had no earthly idea what "winter" consisted of, while I resided in Arizona. If there's anything I miss about Arizona other than the people I love, it is reasonable January weather. 

I'm still not entirely certain I understand the concept of an East Texas winter. Two years ago, when we moved here, it did not get above 40 degrees for the entire month of January. Last year it did not get below 40 degrees and it isn't an exaggeration when I say it rained all month. 

On a side note, my mother lives in Vermont. My mother loves Vermont and glamorizes the weather. She cannot fathom why I have no desire to live there. But I digress...

Anyway, January 2024 in East Texas has promised to be cold. However, East Texas can't decide if this is normal or not. Lest you think I'm grossly exaggerating: 

• Two days ago we were under a tornado alert (which is finitely more disturbing than the usual "tornado advisory.") We had everything set up, including putting painter's tape on the windows, moving my father's stained glass to safer places, making sure we had drinking water, charging our phones, and drugging our overly-anxious dog, Luna, so she wouldn't freak out when the thunderstorm hit--but she freaked out anyway.
• Today's low was 19 degrees, the high is allegedly 58 degrees (I've felt 58 degrees before. Mother Nature and I will just have to agree to disagree on this.). 
• Tomorrow's low is expected to be 18 degrees and the high is expected to be 25 degrees. 
• Next Thursday's low is expected to be 26 degrees and the high is expected to be high is expected to be 52 degrees. 
• Next Friday's low is expected to be 17 degrees and the high is expected to be high is expected to be 38 degrees. 

You may have noticed I skipped Monday - Wednesday. That was on purpose. On those days, I will be longing for the 25 degree low. In fact, according to the bastion of truth, the Internet, we won't even see 25 degrees. As an added bonus, it's supposed to snow. 

Buckaroo works in a job which requires him to be outdoors for several hours. This past week I went online and bought him two hats and a scarf. Tomorrow he will be buying long underwear. But first, I had to explain to him what long underwear is because he thought I'd made up the term.  

In addition to all that, we have alarms on our phones to remind us to turn on the water faucets before we go to bed. We discovered that water pipes do freeze overnight. Which brings me to this burning question: why is it the conventional norm around here to keep the hot water heater in the garage if it is supposed to freeze for up to two months every year? Speaking of hot water heaters and alarms: we also have an alarm to turn on the space heater in the garage for a couple of hours at night to "heat up" the garage prior to going to bed. The theory being maybe the water heater won't freeze. But experience tells me it probably will.