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Highlands Today

It's Been Chilly, But We Don't Have Much To Complain About

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: February 1, 2009

According to some old timers around here, this winter has been colder than usual. The hard freeze we experienced a few weeks ago, coupled with this weekend's cool overnight lows, have some people looking forward to summer. While it has been chilly, and even cold a couple of early mornings, we must snap ourselves into reality: This isn't that bad.

Just look at Kentucky this weekend. More than a million people are without power after ice storms coated everything. Trees are breaking under the pressure and so are power lines. Vehicles are sliding off the roads and people are dying. Somehow our frost doesn't seem so bad.

Any who have ever lived north of Florida have probably experienced "black ice." For those who don't know, black ice is a thick coating of clear ice that where the asphalt or concrete below shows through. It doesn't look like a snow-covered road, but even four-wheel drives skitter across black ice like sleds on a steep hill.

So while we worry about our frost-bitten plants and grumble about putting on a sweatshirt, we don't have it so bad. By mid-afternoon on the coldest days here it was in the high 50s, and typically in the mid-60s.

Come summer, it'll be our turn as tropical storms build in the Caribbean and the rest of the country watches as we duck and cover. But for now, we'll just enjoy what we have, perhaps whine a little about having to put on long pants, but then thank God we're not bracing for a blizzard.

If you're a football fan - and even if you're not - you're well aware of what's going on in Tampa today. You can't help but be inundated with weeks of Super Bowl hoopla on just about ever TV channel and in every newspaper. But something's different this year.

Seasoned vets who cover every Super Bowl have noticed that fewer people are partying and going crazy over our annual national holiday. They surmise it's about the economy, not the teams playing today. We agree.

The Arizona Cardinals and the Pittsburg Steelers are two exciting teams, and even if they don't have the draw of, say, the New York Giants and the New England Patriots, most people believe it will be a fun game. So that's not what's keeping people from going wild this year.

A tough national economy is causing major sponsors to pull out of festivities. Automakers are famous for their Super Bowl parties, and they aren't there. Other sponsors who are facing a tough business climate are taking a pass.

NFL league officials are concerned that ticket sales to next year's games will be affected. They should be concerned because fewer people can afford to go to the games. Actually, the league's prices are the biggest problems. It's almost gotten to the point that an average family cannot afford to attend a game, even in the cheap seats.

We hope the Super Bowl is a great game today. Most Americans will be sitting comfortably at home and saving a lot of money.

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