November is not the same in North Carolina as it presented itself in Ohio. Not at all. November in the Midwest casts gray clouds to match its gray skies, the first snow storms of the season rolls across the Ohio tundra, and dangerous conditions mount on Lake Erie ... everyone remembers the song, The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald by Gordon Lightfoot (though not on Erie, it was a Great Lake just the same) ... Anyway, the ides of November growl and blow across the rolling hills of Ohio ... and the sun is gone until April.
In North Carolina, we wear shorts on sunny days with highs in the 70s. I can pull the last few tomatoes off the vines in the garden. And unless we experience a heavy frost, flowers remain in their beds. You won't see palm trees unless you're about fifty miles south of Charlotte, but our peak leaf season isn't until the first weekend in November.
A drive on the Blue Ridge Parkway is like playing tag with the warm sunshine that glitters through the trees. Take a trip to the top of Pilot Mountain, and you can see all the way to Winston-Salem. Point is, we still get season change in North Carolina, but it's not the monster that appears as soon as the clocks are rolled back in the north. North Carolinians enjoy the seasons longer. It's still Autumn here on Thanksgiving, whereas I've seen cold, nasty, fog and rain or three feet of snow and blizzard conditions on turkey day in Ohio.
As far as the weather is concerned, I'm grateful for the warm winds that blow across the Southlands, even in the winter. If I wanted six months of snow, I'd live in Alaska.
The way the wind blows in North Carolina, is like a love song ... a lullaby whispered into my ear ... "You were always meant to be here ... "
Blessings to you and yours.
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