How Do I Know it's Winter??? Let Me Count the Ways

For most people it's rather easy to know when Winter has arrived. The leaves change to beautiful colors then fall to the ground. You turn your air conditioners, fan, swamp coolers off or close the windows, so you can then turn the heat on :c) Coats, boots, mittens, hats, scarves replace shorts and thongs. The air is cold, you light the fire place, dig out the snow shovels, skies, snow boards, and sleds. And then there is the snow that confirms that yep Winter is here. :c(

The changes in the seasons here happen with a bit less fan fair. Here are a dozen or so ways that I know Winter has arrived in Mazatlan.

1) Little Rubi and Charli need their sweaters on during the day, outside and in the house. (the 2 chihuahuas)

2) LW has traded his shorts in for his jeans

3)We had to put the blanket on the bed

4) We are down to 1-2 showers a day instead of 3-4

5) The outside of your drinking glass no longer is sweating enough to make a small puddle

6)The infamous "sweat rags" ( color coded to your out fit washcloths) are no longer sticking out of pockets or being fanned like flags.

7)People are walking around in the mornings and evenings with real coats and hoods on.

8)People are no longer offering their first born in trade for the last air conditioner or fan in the city

9)Soon they will be offering that same first born for the last space heater in town :c)

10) We are no longer getting our government electrical subsidy to off set the cost for fans and AC

11) We haven't had a drop of rain in over 2 months so the vegetation is dropping it's leaves. Those plants that bloom in the arid dry forests are starting to bloom

12) AND the most convincing one is..... It's now colder in the house then it is outside!! ;c( Hey don't laugh, that's what our families do when we tell them it's cold here. Conversations sorta like "Cold haha it's 30 below the wind is blowing and there is 10 ft of snow on the ground. It's what 50 degrees there in the middle of the night?" Then the conversation is dropped. BUT if they had stayed on the phone long enough they might hear this "Let's see it's 30 below outside and what is the temp inside your house? Maybe 70-72 with the heat ON?? Well of course!! Our houses don't have heat and to boot they are made out of concrete and bricks (nope no insulation either) and tile floors. So when the temp is 50 outside it's 48 inside !

;c( Damn that's bum puckering cold!!! I mean think about how cold your house is when you come back from Christmas vacation and you walk through the door to a house that has had the heat set at 60 for 10 day!!! COLD HUH??? Well I don't have one of those cute little thermestats to kick the heat up to 70. Nope I have to wait until say March before the house heats up.

Ahhh but then temperature is just relative :c)

Have a wonderful day or evening fellow Bloglandians depending on what part of the world you are in :c)