As I process the shock to my system from our unseasonably deep chill starting with Thanksgiving, I had too much time to mull that unexpected and unwelcome transition. Here comes a hodgepodge of stuff, which begins with noting that Thanksgiving weekend was absolutely fantastic for the joys found inside the house.
But that holiday Thursday initiated an extended, never-ending, sub-normal, and occasionally wet-and-dreary weather pattern. Saturday’s mid-20s morning temps were quite a deviation even for late November, Sunday never got above 41°F, and Monday hit only a high of 43°F.
Sunday and Tuesday were cold and rainy. Sunday’s hourly forecast had the added cruelty of lying to us: the reduction in precip was promised in each coming hour only to jump back up to rainy certainty. Tuesday was ugly at least for the first half of the day.
It was cold and dreary enough, and of course this old house can be a bit drafty; the smart move was to bring Grandmother’s amazing quilt out of its summer storage drawer and place it comfortingly over the master bed!
That was just in time for the unrelief of Wednesday, bright and sunny but temps at freezing. It’s the time of year for blooms to emerge from some of the camellia bushes, so here’s how they were looking.
It wasn’t too cold for two squirrel-focused house canines, who seemed unbothered by 32°F as long as yard pests remained active across branches and power lines above.
Once evening rolled around, and they’d had their supper, they were ready for their quiet hangout napping up on the third floor, and I was ready to continue working my way back through the first season of the original Mission Impossible television series.
The final full (and Super!) moon of 2025 arrived at dinnertime that Thursday, but we had a winter weather system moving in that obscured it. I’m glad I went ahead and snagged its rise on the clear evening prior.
On the first Friday of December, local schools were closed or on a virtual day schedule in cautious expectation of a mix of wintry weather that did not materialize here. Instead, on a mizzly nasty dreary day where afternoon temps eased down into the low 30s, it was a delightful lunch on Fourth Street with a longtime social studies colleague, followed by an afternoon home movie hang up in the mancave with our new neighbor. It was a Friday that communicated clearly: once in, stay in! Sound directive, that.
Let’s roll it all together in the appropriate finale of the Winston-Salem Christmas Parade in the stark chill of early dark that first Saturday of December.
Because of the location of the Roediger House, we witness much of the staging of floats and performers and fancy or vintage vehicles.
This year’s event seemed to draw in huge crowds in spite of how cold it was. Or maybe because of it? I’ve strolled the route in past years and practiced my usual restraint in 2025 by stepping only up to the main intersection by the house to grab a few documentary pics. I do think folks had a fine time.
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