>You don't even want to know how cold it is here. And it's not even officially the start of winter. The good part is we appreciate summer when it comes. We've earned it.

You Southerners are so softly kneaded (may I be allowed a literal translation). I'm about 3 degrees more north than you are, and it's just mild here. Yes, we had anunseasonably early snow on 26th of november, and the last of it thawed just yesterday, but that's not proper frost yet. The big deal it will be if we had a long winter like the last one (first big snow 8th december, last 27th march), or few nights of -26C (-15F), which then peels the paint off the gates when it thaws.