winter

All over the upcountry this morning the warm, south-facing sides of houses are covered with boxelder bugs.  Have you seen them? They're orange and black and about a half-inch long.

I make this prognostication because it's true at my house. The boxelder bugs are swarming, so they're probably swarming elsewhere. I've noticed them in other years, but this time it's looking a little like a bad horror film-"The Invasion of the Boxelder Bugs."

We're officially not quite half-way between autumn equinox on September 21st and winter solstice on December 21st, but the "cold alert" has been sounding in our house the last week or so. We've had a frost, the leaves are falling, and the heat's even kicked on two or three times.