Having spent a fair share of time on my grandparents farm growing up as a kid in Kansas, I can remember my Grandfather trying to predict the weather each year by certain natural occurrences. I can remember him talking about thicker than normal corn husks, pigs gathering sticks, and even how wide or narrow the orange band is on the Woolybear caterpillar, all of these being signs of how harsh the winter to come was about to be. Little did he know that I would arrive at the perfectly flawless indicator right here in the city.

I arrived at the means of predicting the harsh winter season just by driving to work every day.

My daily trek takes me right past Wal-mart. As October and now November are upon us, it is quite evident that we are looking at a very severe winter to come. You too can check my prediction just by driving by on any given morning before 9:00 am. Look at the corner of the parking lot for the great grey haired migration of people in motor-homes and camping trailers.
Just the other day I noticed 16 RV’s, all in rows, most pulling another vehicle in their annual trip down to the sunbelt. I often wondered, how do they know just the precise moment that the weather begins to change? Is it an inherent instinct us humans are born with? Is there a particular age that this urge to gather up our personal belongs and pack them into mobile storage devices and drive south kicks in? And, why spend the night in a Wal-mart parking lot? Is there some underground marketing ploy that the merchandising giant uses to lure these unsuspecting mature adults to their blacktop? I don’t have the answers here just the questions.

Just think if the government mandated that at age 65 you must pack whatever you could cram in to a 300 square foot trailer house and drive 15 hours or more south every November, what a public outcry there would be. If they told you that you cannot return with your possessions until the first signs of a robin in the yard at where ever your permanent address is, how utterly appalled we would be. Obviously mother nature has empowered this older generation with the instincts needed to survive the harsh Winters by migration.

Oh no, I just stopped and realized that 4 years ago at age 50 I purchased an older motor home. Could it be that I have started into this next phase of my adulthood. Totally unaware of what the outcome might be. And, yes what small amount of hair I have is now turning silvery grey. I have noticed an overwhelming desire recently to stock up on suntan lotions. Well, look for me in the Wally World parking lot. And please be kind and try to limit the obscenities as you fly up behind me as I cruise down interstate at my steady 60 mph pace. Ohhhhhh I hope karma doesn’t come back to bite me!

Remember, try to find a little humor every day. We already have our quota of disdain and discourse. Please share this article on Face-Book and Twitter and hopefully we can both make someone smile today.