This is November?

Today’s temperature here in Iowa City reached 74°, a record high —on November 10. Sunday it was 67°, Monday 66°, Tuesday 70°. This is all about 20 degrees above the average for this time of year. And it’s quite disorienting. I put my shorts away and got out my sweatshirts a couple of weeks ago, but have been wearing a T-shirt the past few days. I’ve been meaning to clean out the dying garden and pond, but it’s tough to get motivated when it looks and feels like things might start up again any moment (not to mention the convenient rationalization it provides). I’m certainly not complaining — keep it up through the winter for all I care. I can keep last year’s oil in the snow blower as long as I’m able. But there’s in the back of my mind the nagging suspicion that this unseasonable weather is nothing more than a goading, a tease of expectation and hope that will soon and certainly be dashed upon the icy shore of bitter, dark winter, and we’ll be huddled around the furnace, cursing the drifting snow and bone-chilling temperatures (not to mention the TV weather cretins droning on about the “wind chill factor,” which is nothing more than saying don’t go out and stand in a field buck-naked). One of the few advantages of age is the experience of knowing this is true.