Last week Iona was suffering a bit and instead of empathizing, we made fun of her. One night she went to bed as a medium-sized puppy and the next morning she woke up a huge puffball. We swear she grew her entire winter coat in one night. And this when the days were still in the low 80s. Michael had been out of town for a few days and jokingly accused me of leaving the air conditioning on too high and forcing the fur growth to make her look more like a stuffed animal.

Needless to say she was miserable. Itchy, hot and way too furry. So yes, we questioned her decision to declare it winter so early. And yes, she was right and we were so wrong.

It has been in the 30s and 40s in the morning. When she and I go out, she just trundles happily around while I am literally shaking. Keep in mind that I am unable to just “grow” a coat and all my winter clothes are still in storage. No sweaters, no boots, no coat, no gloves. My exercise in efficiency absolutely backfired on me. You see, I was prepared for the move and had packed up all my fall and winter clothes early. So those made it into a POD. We had thought that there would be NO WAY THAT WE WOULDN’T BE MOVED INTO A HOUSE BY NOW. Michael on the other hand had completely procrastinated with his personal packing and the PODS were both gone by the time he got around to it. So he has his coat and all his sweaters. He is ironically prepared.

So tonight I sucked it up and bought a coat. Grudgingly. This is a rare time that I didn’t want to have to buy new clothes! I haven’t seen 1/2 my stuff in over five months and hadn’t worn the winter things in over eight. Coupled with the fact that no one here was ever seen these items…so they are basically new. And sitting in a storage container. Sigh. So, I am now the proud owner of two heavier sweaters, gloves, a warm coat and one pair of wool pants. Go winter!