New Years 2022

Happy New Year to all of you. I hope this year brings you joy and happiness, and I hope we see improvement on the COVID front in 2022 as well.

I'm always happy to get the holidays behind us. Now, please don't misunderstand me; I enjoy the Christmas season. I enjoy the music, the decorations, the smells -- everything. But I'm kind of a routine guy, so I'm always happy to get back to normal. And those kids need to get back in school so that places aren't so crowded when I venture out. Those little rascals cramp my style. I was like that in pre-COVID days, and I'm even more like that now.

We had a really unusual December. Our local meteorologist has reported that for the month of December, we have tied or broken 8 records for high temperatures, and we have seen above average temps for 26 of the 31 days this month. Wow! Our warmest day was December 26 when we reached a high of 86 degrees. 

The meteorologist also showed a graph indicating that this has been the warmest December on record. For the month, our average temperature was 60.1 degrees. That is a differential of 11.6 degrees above normal. The next highest average temp for the month of December occurred in 1970, and it was 54.6 degrees. That's a considerable jump. After that, December of 1977 showed an average temp of 52.2, as did the years 1933 and 1922.

In addition to the heat, it has also been a dry month. We only received 0.03 inch of rain for the entire month. We are in a drought stage at this time, and that is never good around here. I worry about our farmers. Right now, they could probably use some healthy rain on their winter wheat crops.

We've certainly had some unusual weather this year, starting with the "Big Freeze" back in February, when we had considerable snow fall and below freezing temps for about a week. I'd like to see things normalize, but I'm not holding my breath. 

Despite that, I must admit I've enjoyed the warm temps. I've been able to resume my walking routine in the morning rather than later in the day, and I do enjoy that. I really enjoy see the sun come up in West Texas. The colors can really be beautiful.

Sunrise through the leafless mesquites and the house tops.

I'll close with a couple of pictures I snapped a day or two ago when we drove out to Lake Nasworthy and Spring Creek Park. The first is of a romantic buck. This handsome young Romeo is following his lady love, who has already disappeared into the brush. As we approached him, Romeo had stopped at the edge of the road and was watching us. I pulled to a stop to give him the right of way and waved him across. He then slowly sauntered across. I believe this is the same scamp we saw a few weeks ago who was pursing another young beauty a bit farther down the road. He certainly has romance on his mind.

Romeo in slow pursuit of a doe. He's a cool customer and can't be hurried.

The picture below is of Spring Creek as it works its way towards the Middle Concho River and Lake Nasworthy. A boat is tied up, and a butte rises above the horizon right above the boat. Its counterpart is just to the right, but is barely visible through the trees. It is these two buttes that give the upstream lake its name, Twin Buttes Lake.

Spring Creek and one of the Twin Buttes

Happy New Year everyone!