“Poor Richard’s Almanac” will give you a versatile idea on the subject of weather. Started by Benjamin Franklin in 1732, it appeared continuously until 1758. It offered a mixture of seasonal weather forecasts, practical household hints, puzzles and other amusements. Benjamin adopted the pseudonym of “Poor Richard” for this purpose.

I thought of the subject of winter when a friend of mine said one day she loves this weather and she dreads the coming of winter (the day mentioned had a cool morning and a warm afternoon). I took her by surprise when I said, “Winter’s one of my favorite times of the year.” Autumn being the main one. She couldn’t understand why I would say that until I told her I was from up North. “Once a Northerner, always a Northerner,” I explained.

So, what does winter foretell for us this year? The almanac says winter of 2014-2015 will be “shivery and shovely” with below-normal temps for three-quarters of the nation. Expect wet and chilly weather here in the South, normal precipitation in the Northwest, frigid and flaky in the Great Lakes area, wintry and white in New England, bitter and snowy in the Great Plains, and the Southwest will be brisk and wet.

Well, enough of the weather. The almanac also provided many useful aphorisms (truth statements) provided by Ben, such as:

One today is worth two tomorrows.

There are no gains without pains.

At the workingman’s house, hunger looks in but dare not enter.

Have you something to do tomorrow? Do it today.

He said he gleaned these sayings from the wisdom of the ages and nations. There are hundreds more. Check them out on Google.

Whether or not we will need to get the shovels out here in Tennessee remains to be seen. Everyone knows how fickle the weather is here. The predictions of the almanac have been proven to be 75% percent correct, but I think we here in the South are in the other 25%. It would seem so. I eagerly await to see the results of this winter. Will it remind me of a Northern winter?

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