Fall has finally arrived here in the southwest. A fickle cold front swept down from Oregon dropping the temperatures over 20 degrees overnight and promising rain.

We got spit not rain.

And cold temperatures.

Now before all you Northerns tell me that 38 degrees F is not cold, let me just say that it doesn’t get HOT until the temperature is over 110 F. Seventy is cold to me.

So when the highs were in the upper-50s and low sixties, I was reaching for my sweater, mittens and hat.

Then there are the mornings. 430 AM is dark (with a shooting star nearly every day) and flipping cold. Even the dog who sports his own fur coat, eschews the water puddles. I’m seriously considering buying earmuffs since I can’t feel my ears after the morning walkies. And while the air quality in Phoenix is usually crap in the winter, I’m not used to seeing my breath puffing in front of me like a coal train.

And so it was that I opened the big drawer, the one that holds my fuzzy socks and sock-slippers. You know the kind, the ones that look like you’re wearing muppets on  your feet and don’t fit in a normal sock drawer because they’re so big.

And this is when I noticed something peculiar– the thermostat on the heater turns to the right in winter, but the regulator in the shower moves to the left. What’s up with that?