Cold weather

I once heard someone say, "Don't knock the weather. Without weather, most folks would have nothing to talk about at all". In our part of the world, we would add football, pickup trucks, quail hunting, and dogs to that list. The weatherman said yesterday that parts of all 50 states were registering temperatures below freezing, and that included Hawaii. Then this morning the weather lady was standing in Buffalo, NY where they had already received SEVEN FEET of snow. Just as an aside, have any of you ever seen an ugly weather lady? I sure as heck have not.
 Down here in the sunny south, Riverview has been no exception to the cold weather. Yesterday we set a record low for this date at 21 degrees. Now I must admit that I am normally jealous when I see a bunch of excited hunters climbing on the jeeps in the morning to enjoy a glorious day in one of God's most beautiful creations--the big piney woods of south Georgia. We had 16 jeeps pull out from the main lodge yesterday morning, and each of them had two guests going to their very own, private 250-300 acre hunting course. I did not experience the first pang of envy toward a single one of them. And the strangest thing of all to me was that they all seemed eager to get out there.
 It made me think of the line from "The Great Gatsby" that said,"the rich are not like you and me". I have come to the conclusion that Yankees are not like southerners either. I think that folks who live north of the "Smith&Wesson Line" have thicker blood and skin than we folks down here have. However, it was a great day for hunting yesterday, and today is a carbon copy, although just a shade warmer.
 One other good thing about this cold weather is that we have now experienced back to back hard, killing frosts. That will make the scenting conditions a lot better for the bird dogs. One of my guides said that one of his dogs was so good that he was going to have to tape one of his nostrils closed next week. He figures that's the only way that he can stop him from pointing two different coveys at the same time after this frost.
 I hope everyone has a very happy Thanksgiving. The Cox family is looking forward to having everyone home for that occasion!