Photo by Auntie P at flickr.com
Today, I did something wrong.
I ate a perfect pear in January.
In this part of the United States, January usually means down jackets, snow pants and polar fleece.
By now, we should have built a snow fort or two; our weekends should involve ski slopes and sleds and hot chocolate by blazing fires.
January is supposed to mean batting flakes out of my eyelashes as I go into the grocery store and scraping the ice off my windshield on my way out.
So while the earth is firm under my feet and breathing the air makes me cough, I can still see grass.
We are at a threshold, neither in nor out.
And on this winter morning, as my son slid out the back door wearing a new parka — so blue against the white sky – biting through that pear’s flesh tasted entirely wrong.
The sweet nectar was delicious but wrong.
I tried to be grateful for a summer reminder.
{In subtraction, they would call it the remainder.}
But I’m tired of these remnants, the what’s left sticky residue of summer on my fingers.
Let it be winter already: enough of this in-between.
Is anyone else wishing for full-blown winter?
renée a. schuls-jacobson 
I am!!! I think. I don’t know. It is nice to walk the dog, and not freeze. We’re expecting mid forties this week in Chicago. MID FORTIES!! It’s stinkin’ January!!!
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Right? What’s up with this global weirding?!
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Old Man Winter took a wrong turn somewhere. We had frost in New Orleans this morning. 🙂
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Shut the front door! Did it snow in NOLA? I’m coming down in February. It had better not be colder in NOLA than it is here. Who dat? 😉
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I can’t wait to get together when you visit!!
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I’m so glad I’m not the only one! Let it snow, let it snow!
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Right? That’s what the song says! Well, let’s get on that. Will you, Eric? 😉
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I would love to empathize with you Renee, but that would be too dishonest. I am very happy with this mild weather. The cold blast we are now experiencing caused my annual/perpetual question, “Why do I live in the northeast?” I will not feel comfortably warm until the spring. I usually try to pacify my quandary with my love of seasons and ties to New Jersey. Yet, I have never warmed up to this climate. I have actually enjoyed skiing and skating, but just don’t like bundling up for regular outings. I even miss summer fruits all winter long. I am usually not so negative, thus, I will keep this short and will try to look at the “sunny side” of things….
I hope that the winter works out well for all–non-extreme cold, enough snow to ski, sunny skis and warm homes!
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Oh Shari, I am a summer girl to the core! But I fear that if winter doesn’t come, this cold weather is going to drag on into what SHOULD be the WARMER part of the year. I need spring to start in the spring, not in July. And just so you know? I wear a black down coat in the house at all times. People think I am positively mad.
But I do like to ski. And I know how to dress when the weather is miserable. This is just… baffling.
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I am wishing too! I think there is a storm coming into Colorado. I have my fingers crossed…
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I want to get to the slopes. I think people were finally able to go skiing last weekend. Finally.
I mean, really?
It’s January!
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I never wish for full blown winter.
I love having fruit year round, though I can never pick out the perfect pear.
I hate wind chills.
I flew to Colorado and spent a week there, had my winter taste, and now I’m ready for 70 degrees again.
Over 25 years of living in Iowa, which often is colder than Siberia, broke me of ever wishing for winter.
I guess it’s a good thing I live in central Texas now. 🙂
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Hi Kelly:
I would love to live in Texas.
My happiest years were the ones spent in New Orleans, but if I’m going to be here it simply has to be cold. I need to be able to wear Under Armour and ski and sled.
This is ridiculous.
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Winter should only come to mountainous areas where they have real ski slopes. Let the Midwest, etc., skip it.
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I live in an area where there is lots of good skiing. Everyone is very sad. My skis are waxed and ready to go.
Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow! 😉
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Ok, your zeal for snow makes a bit more sense if you have skiing available. I do love to ski…
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yes, I miss winter! In Chicago area it is supposed to be in the upper 30s and lower 40s this week. I can see the grass and I am sad. Over New Year’s I stayed up (selfishly) at out family’s cottage in Northern Michigan just to sit through Winter Storm Warning and 8″ of blowing snow. Gladly went out and shoveled snow the next morning. Whether that will happen in a few weeks after Winter hits – remains to be seem. But now, I am bummed and longing for some signs of winter. The pear must have tasted wonderful!
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The pear was wonderfu; — and I know we can get fruit like that all year round now, but it just seemed so odd to be eating a pear in the middle of January. And now the sky is blue blue blue. It is never like this.
Don’t get me wrong; I am a summer girl, but I don’t like this global weirding.
I need winter when we are supposed to have winter.
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What??!! You hate the cold! And I do, too. So, no, I’m not missing the winter weather. If it stays like this through March, I’ll be very happy. And pears are best in the winter! Summer is the time for peaches and berries.
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faith:
You KNOW I hate the cold. I’m perpetually freezing; I just need winter to start so we can get it over with already.
I’m baffled about what to wear.
But please note that I’m wearing my puffy coat as I write this to you.
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We went to the beach on New Year’s Day.
Three of my four family members actually played in the ocean on January 1st.
(I was the hold-out. Because Brrr. It was only in the 70’s.)
No. I don’t wish for winter.
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Julie:
That’s what I mean.
It either needs to be 70 or 7.
I don’t know what to do with this whole 30 degree shizz with no snow.
If it is going to be 30 degrees, let me sit by a fire or go skiing — for the love of Pete.
This is just bizarre.
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I love winter. I love all seasons in different ways and it’s great to eat seasonal foods in their time. I wouldn’t dream of buying strawberries now, any more than I would want to eat a load of root vegetables in the summer. 🙂
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Precisely.
Although, I am not known to love winter, I guess I have an alternative agenda.
I’d like to get winter started so we can get it over with already.
I am a summer girl!
But I do miss the icicles: the holidays were not the same without the snow.
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Girl, it is cold as all get-out! But I do like SOME snow in the winter. (I should be careful what I wish for – we already lost power TWICE -a week each time- in the past few months, and for an hour yesterday, of course while I was on a teleconference! Gah!)
I love your writing 🙂
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Losing power is decidedly not fun!
In fact, I am planning a post on that for someone.
But I’m with you — all this freezing with no snow is pretty miserable.
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NO! Bite your tongue, girlie! I’m THRILLED with my thawed months being extended! 🙂
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I am terrified that we will have an ice storm in May.
That happened here once, and we lost power.
It was awful.
I want winter to start so that it will stop.
Is it wrong to wish time to hurry up and go fast?
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We had the same thing for most of December here, cold-ish, but no snow. It was kind of depressing. Then January 1st hit and winter came in with a blast, 6-10 inches of snow in most of the areas around us. They call it “lake effect” snow as it comes off of Lake Michigan. There’s nothing better than being home on a holiday or a weekend when its snowing like crazy and you don’t have to go anywhere. On workdays… not so much. No fresh pears here though, still working down all the crap food that shows up during holiday times. Ugh!
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Mmmmm. Crap food.
Yeah, we’re done with that.
That’s the beauty of traveling for the holidays.
No junk at home.
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I want to jump on a sled and fly down the hill next to our house at least once before spring.
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I want to whoosh.
Just a little bit.
And then be done, so I can go back to pears.
Legit.
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I wish I could agree with you but I was quite done with winter after the freakish snowstorm that hit us Halloween weekend and left us with 8+ inches of snow and 5 days without power! Spring can’t come soon enough💐
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That’s true. You guys got hammered early.
I don’t know what to make of all this global weirdness.
I just want it to start so that it doesn’t go longer.
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It is about 80 and I couldn’t be happier. Jews are desert people best suited for warm climates. If I wasn’t in LA or Israel I’d pick Hawaii.
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I was living happily in New Orleans.
How did I land here?
Oh yeah.
The family fallacy. 😉
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In Syracuse Old Man Winter came knocking at my door. He said “Sorry, I’m late…..MISS ME?
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Hi Mom. It’s cold, but is there snow? I want that white stuff so that we can be done with it. So it doesn’t drag on into what is supposed to be spring.
I don’t want to be eating hearty soups and stews in May. 😉
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Beautifully said! But no. I HATE driving in the snow and ice. I’m a total grandma.
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The other day I told my wife, “hey, I haven’t had a headache for a few weeks now!”
Then I got a headache. Lasted the whole blasted day.
Watch out – you’re probably gonna get pounded with a major winter storm now that you’ve spoken about it.
Weird how it works that way sometimes. Let’s see… maybe…
“Hey, I haven’t had a million bucks for – like – ever!”
(hehe. ohboyohboyohboy – when it hits this is gonna be great!)
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Today in Wisconsin, I took a walk without a scarf or gloves and sat on a park bench with my honey in the sun. I love this kind of winter. Snow be damned! And you just stop wishin’ for it! Unless you plan to shovel my car out for me. 😛
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A nuclear power plant went down in Japan from the tsunami. Obviously, that is going to have some side effects. I’m just hoping the drought doesn’t turn into a world wide famine in the next couple of years. We have enough problems as it is without that adding to it.
I just wished a few more people were worried about this. With no rain/snow we cease to have food in the up coming seasons.
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I adore winter and I really hope I actually get some actual winter this year. The freak snowstorm of Halloween doesn’t count. I haven’t even had to wear a hat yet! And I love my hats and sweaters as much as I love winter. Cold weather is when I come alive and feel tingly and awake.
Don’t ask me how I spent nearly 10 years living in warm climates. People kept telling me I’d get used to it and would never be able to go back to ‘real’ winter. Naturally I had to prove them wrong 😉 Instead of getting used to the heat, I grew to despise it and long for winter even more.
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