Have I mentioned it’s been cold here?
Well, except for that one day when it was hot. What an outlier Tuesday was! Our high temperatures for the last week have looked like this:
By the way, I totally made this chart. Which I suppose makes me both a weather geek and a computer geek, but I don’t care. #madexcelskillz
If I included today’s high, that line would plummet again. This was our temperature at noon, which means it was a whopping 50 degrees colder than just two days earlier. Good lord! I won’t even mention the 70-mph wind gusts that toppled our patio furniture yesterday and sent debris flying everywhere.
It’ll probably be 90 in a few days.
Actually, it won’t. We might have skipped right over fall this year, because things are looking pretty cold for the foreseeable future. Which explains why I bought a pair of snow boots and a heavy duty snow and ice scraper for my car today. I now feel that I am properly prepared for anything that Mother Nature decides to throw our way! Better safe than sorry when the forecast looks like this…
Oh, well. Autumn sure was nice while it lasted those five or six days.
Don’t get me wrong; there are some positives to this early onset of cold weather. At least the odds of running into a rattlesnake are much lower now.
I’m just going to pretend that mountain lions are also averse to freezing temperatures. Humor me, okay?
Other benefits of cold weather: I’ve got a pot roast cooking in the crockpot right now, filling the apartment with a heavenly aroma. And, it made it very easy to get into the spirit of last weekend’s Great Downtown Pumpkin Hunt! Speaking of spirits, the highlight had to be the pub crawl. But the pumpkin chuckin’ contest was pretty fun, too. And we started the day with brunch at kōl, where we ordered their Brunch Pizza (garlic cream sauce, Black Forest ham, bacon, fontina cheese, shaved asparagus, and sunny side up eggs). Guys: it was amazing. Add bottomless Bloody Marys to the mix for a very reasonable price, and it’s a wonder we don’t live in that place.
So it was a fun weekend, even if we paid the price on Sunday.
Tomorrow evening we are going to see Nrivana at the Loud American Roadhouse in Sturgis. No, that’s not a typo. They’re a Nirvana cover band (!) who supposedly put on a really good show. Tickets were $10 a pop, so I was all in. We stopped by the Loud American during the Rally in August on the recommendation of a coworker of Tara’s, who raved about their steak tips. They lived up to the hype, so it should be a good time! As for the rest of the weekend, it’ll be a long one for Tara, who has Monday off. We’ll probably go for a hike in Custer State Park on Saturday and hit Crazy Horse on Monday.
Weather-permitting, of course.
Oh! Exactly one year ago tomorrow, we hit the road for…drum-roll, please!…Rapid City, SD! We were just embarking on our whirlwind road trip out here to see if it was potentially a place we might want to live.
Spoiler alert: it was.
Mark My Words 
OMG. That pizza looks like it is to DIE for!! I also envy you your cold temps and that pot roast aroma.
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I wasn’t sure about the pizza, but Tara really wanted to try it. Glad I listened to her – now I don’t know how I can ever order anything else BUT that pizza!
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I guess the extreme temps is a Midwest phenomenon? We often joke about needing to use the furnace and the a/c on the same day. And the best thing about colder temps really is the food! I enjoyed your slideshow! Looking forward to hearing about Crazy Horse. Is it done?
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It’s totally a Midwest thing. We never got temperature swings this extreme in the PNW! I totally could have had the heat on Tuesday morning and the A/C in the afternoon. Crazy Horse doesn’t look any closer to completion now than it did the last time I visited in 2011. I don’t expect it to be finished in my lifetime.
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Not a fan of the extreme temperature changes. The 87 degree weather on Tuesday was perfect for me. I thought I had more time to get us winterized. Spent a small fortune buying things online for the kids last night (snow boots! snow pants!), but alas they won’t arrive until well after this winter spell this week. Oh well, bundling up and trying to adjust! There will be no outdoor exploring this weekend without the proper gear – baking/cooking/kitchen aromas INDOORS instead! Although we are venturing out to the Black Hills Powwow tonight. Enjoy your long weekend!!
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Stocking up on cold weather gear when you have nothing can set you back quite a bit, that’s for sure! Luckily, Tara and I bought heavy duty winter coats before we left the PNW. We looked for snow boots, but good luck trying to find those in Oregon or Washington – especially in the springtime. They’re hard enough to find in the middle of winter!
The Powwow looks like fun. Enjoy – and stay warm!
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So clearly we need to somehow get our air to mingle as the average between the two would be quite pleasant. It was 89 here today (not counting humidity) with mosquitoes that could carry away a baby.
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Ha, exactly! Maybe we should send out party invitations. I mean, 89 is just…unthinkable right now. Hope it cools off soon for you.
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Mark, I would LOVE to have temps of 37 degrees, since it’s been unusually hot and humid here. Today however, we got a brief break from the summer heat as it was in the 60’s. However, I saw that next week it’s back into the mid’80’s. I am sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo over our ENDLESS summer heat. Right now I would kill for a snow storm and below freezing temps. I bought all this wonderful Autumn-themed food at Trader Joe’s this week, such as: pumpkin soup, pumpkin ravioli, pumpkin bread, and pumpkin butter, which I have no desire to eat just yet because it still feels like summer!
LOVE the photographs of the Autumn trees, they’re beautiful!
PLEASE send me some FALL weather, okay???
Enjoy your weekend!
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OMG, Ron – how terrible. I feel for you! In fact, I shared this comment with Tara, and her reaction was exactly the same as mine.
“Poor Ron!”
Knowing how much you love fall weather and despise the heat, we both feel for you. Here’s hoping this cold storm system moves out your way and brings some much-needed relief. It’s not pumpkin weather if it isn’t cool and overcast!
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Ah, the cold weather. And so I am reminded why we live here. I’ll admire your deciduous trees from afar. 🙂
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