Lo, these many seasons

Up North we have something called Seasons. I think in places like San Diego, you just have one, WarmandPleasant. And in the south it might be more like two - Hot and Less Hot. We have an abundance of seasons up here.

June - August: Summer
September - October: Fall
November: Pre-winter
December - February: Real Winter
March - April: Less Winter
May: Spring (with potential for Less Winter)

This requires a lot of clothing options. Which means, we have a variety of coats and jackets. Light. Light with a hood. Light and water resistant. Warmer, for transition. Warmer with a hood in case of rain/snow mix. Wool. Down parka.

I'll try to hold off on the down & wool coats for a little while longer. You wear them for so long up here that you get really sick of them come March. And once it hits 35 or so again after Real Winter, I'll put away the wool for the warmer transition jacket.

Also, I change out my closet every few months. Apparently this week it is time for the change to Real Winter clothes. After summer, I pull out some Fall clothes. Light sweaters and such. But now that it's getting colder, I need to get out the really warm sweaters. And it's time to pack away short sleeves for the season. Their time has passed. The house we're renting isn't really conducive to such behavior. There's extremely limited storage. Which means I'm going to have to take everything out of the little crawl space to find the Real Winter clothes. So for now, I'm just layering the best I can. And I'm cold.

I seem to forget about the Real Winter clothes that are packed away every year. So when it gets colder, I rush out to buy warmer sweaters. And then I open the box of warm sweaters and discover I have no less than five that are gray. And at least two of those look suspiciously alike, and are both some sort of cheap cashmere blend.

I'm doing my best to resist the call of the warm sweater in the stores, until I've dug up the warm sweater tote. It's just that the combination of cabin fever from staying home with The Sickie and the cooler temps and living closer to things like Old Navy make me want to run out and buy this sweater in every color they have.

So which do you think I'll do first? Break down & buy a sweater, or put up the Christmas tree? Tough call.