Hasn’t the weather been really wonderful the last few days?

I think so. Normally, we have temperatures in the 90s at least, sometimes in the 100s in September. I remember that back in the early1980s that temperatures topped 100 degrees for several days.

Right now, not only are the high temperatures in the 80s and the lows in the 60s, the humidity level also is way down.

The weatherman says all this will end over the weekend so that we better enjoy it while we can. I am.

Nola and I have been walking early in the morning and she has really pranced the past couple of days. We began walking early simply to have one of our walks at a time when the sun was not beating down so hotly on us. Now we are walking to really enjoy those early morning 60s.

Weather is such a unpredictable thing, no matter how hard the forecasters work to show it can be predicted.

Our advertising director, Mary Jim Weems, and Lifestyles Editor Ginger Schmidt were looking at a Farmer’s Almanac shortly before noon Wednesday and laughing about some of the predictions. This is the new one, by the way, making the predictions for 2009.

One of the predictions was for heat and drought in North Mississippi and heat and above average rainfall in South Mississippi. What else is new? Most of us could have made the prediction about South Mississippi and been correct more than half the time.

The almanac did make one slightly puzzling forecast, at least to Ginger, and that is that we would have a hurricane in late September. She grew up in New Orleans and her memories of hurricanes are late August and early September.

Mary Jim and I are older than Ginger and we were able to point to some late September and early October storms that struck in this region. Ginger still thinks the almanac is definitely wrong on that one. Personally, I hope no hurricanes strike even near us, next year or any year.

Another of its forecasts for next year is that we will have unusually cold winter weather down here. North Mississippi will have greater than normal snowfall, according to the almanac.

I suppose we are about due for another of our rare, really cold winters, so the almanac may be right on that one, but only time will tell.

The television weathermen are calling the system that is bringing us our cool temperatures the “Canadian Express.” That’s one foreign import that I really appreciate. In fact, I would love to have a lot more of that particular weather imported.

There’s another weather pattern I have heard called the “Arctic Express” that brings us the really cold weather. I generally enjoy that one because it doesn’t last too long down here, at least not nearlyas long as it does up north, but I’m a little hesitant to wish for it. Some things you wish for before they arrive aren’t really so welcome once they get here.

Back in the winter of 1989-’90, one of those Arctic Express weather patterns hit us and killed many of the palm trees in New Orleans as well as freezing a lot water pipes and causing other kinds of cold-related problems. As I recall, I believe the battery in my truck chose to give out during that visit by the Arctic Express.

I just hope I can get the yard mowed before this Canadian Express moves out of here. There aren’t many times during the lawn-mowing season that you can mow in such relative comfort.

Hopefully, Nola and I will have at least a couple of more mornings to walk with the temperatures in the 60s and the humidity way down before this weather system gets out of here.

Sometime in October or November these temperatures will return, but I could really get used to enjoying them in September. Getting used to them in September is unlikely, especially in these years of global warming, but it sure is good to daydream about.

It makes me think Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas are closer than they really are, but that’s alright. I had rather my thoughts be on those holidays than on hurricanes during the hurricane season. With all the storms gone for the moment, it’s easy to concentrate on more pleasant subjects.