I hate cold weather.
That's not exactly a secret. I grit my teeth every year as the leaves start to change color, because as beautiful as it is, I know what it portends.
It means mornings like this morning.
Of the many new gizmos that are part of today's cars is a temperature gauge built into most dashboards.
This morning when I slid behind the wheel it was reading 18 degrees. Once I pulled out onto the road it dipped to 16.
We are in the midst of a record-challenging cold snap - and winter does not arrive officially for another month.
The record low for today is 20 degrees, set back in 1936. They apparently have matched that at the airport. So far the official Philly temperature is 22 degrees.
How cold was it this morning? Apparently too cold even for Bambi.
I have gotten used to dodging the deer that insist on sharing the roads with me on my early-morning commute. I usually see four or five of them each day, in particular along Providence Road as it ambles from West Chester Pike to the the Media Bypass. It's a notorious stretch.
This morning I did not have a single sighting. I guess that shows deer are a hell of a lot smarter than a newspaper editor.
Then again, in my line of work, you caution yourself that things could always be worse.
Think Buffalo, N.Y.
They are being buried in feet - not inches - of lake-effect snow. Some areas are getting as much as 4 feet or more of snow, with more on the way.
When I die, if the powers that be decide I need some time in purgatory, I know where they are going to send me.
There is another change on the way, of course.
Temperatures are expected to moderate as we head toward the weekend. We could be in the 60s by Sunday and a chance of actually cracking 70 on Monday, with rain.
Maybe it's global warming.
I hope so. It's way too early for the conditions out there this morning.
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