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It has finally gotten cold outside. The weather has been wonderful but it eventually had to get cold. My October and November electrical bills were extremely reasonable due to the warm weather.

I have three large oak trees in my yard and the leaves have mostly fallen. I hate leaves, they make a mess. The first official day of winter was Saturday, Dec. 21. By the beginning of the year most of my leaves will be gone.

Maybe this year, we will have snow. We haven’t had much the last couple of years. It was mostly flurries. A few years after I first moved to North Carolina in 1977, we had almost a 20-inch snow storm in Kenansville. It stopped everything. Two days later, it was 70 degrees outside.

When I was a kid living in southeastern Pennsylvania, we had several good snows most years. My brother commented to me a few years ago that they just don’t have much snow anymore. I remember one year when the snow didn’t melt for a month.

While I was in the U.S. Air Force, I was fortunate to be stationed in Biloxi, Mississippi and Saint Anthony, Newfoundland. Biloxi didn’t have much of a winter but did have a nice beach. St. Anthony had a long winter with lots of snow. Average annual snowfall in the town was above 200 inches. Snowfall was higher on the hill where the radar site used to be.

I never really minded the snow and the cold that much. It wasn’t as cold as it got in Alaska. I wonder how much snow they get now, probably a lot.

I expect this winter to be mild. It is warmer then when I was a child. The weather has changed but it is hard to notice. I guess by the time a person turns 80, they are able to see changes in weather patterns. We do have global warming and the sea levels are rising but very slowly.

Along with winter, we get Christmas and Jan. 1, we have a whole new year to enjoy.

Winter is the time when I to do all my inside home projects. This year there’s going to be in-house repairs and painting. Unlike most people, I love to paint and take great pride in it. I’m not good at carpentry but am pretty good at doing electrical work. Each year my ambitions are high but I don’t get everything done.

Winter is not a time when I wash my vehicles. I either take them to the car wash or leave them dirty. If there’s a good warm day during winter, I enjoy it.   I do not wash my vehicles.

Winter seems to hang on until the end of February. By the beginning of March, I am ready for spring and want to get out in the yard. It will be a mess but I will be ready to do my best and hopefully make it look better than the previous year.

Winter is a nice break from summer but I’m always glad to see spring arrive. Spring is a time of rebirth. I love to see things grow and flowers bloom.

Al Klemm is a Washington resident and a former Beaufort County Commissioner.