Slim,
Don't feel so bad. We actually have winter down here too. It starts around 
the first of January and ends by the first of March. We sometimes get freezing 
temps, but the daytime warms up nicely into the forties or fifties. We get one 
or two snowstorms each year, but the worst of it is the ice storms which can 
take the power out for days at a time. It's very unlike the neverending winters 
up north. By the first of March we're already warming back up into the 
sixties and seventies. The Lakes never freeze and I've had the same snow shovel for 
twelve years....they don't wear out. Snow tires are unheard of and snow plows 
are even more scarce.

Rummy