Wintry Mix.

Well, it is cold outside. And the clouds are starting to build in. And it's already raining in Georgia. And the low is tracking our way. And they changed their minds: Warning, now, and not Watch. The Warning area is a little fingernail of counties that runs give or take from here back toward Asheville, over the north of South Carolina, and just into northwest Georgia.

The fancies keep saying this all starts, give or take, at about 4 a.m.

My mother used to stand out at the top of the driveway and close her eyes and take deep breaths and then come back in and report to us that it smelled like snow. She and my dad grew up in Nashville, where it used to snow, and where it still does. We grew up in Atlanta, where snow was a kind of novelty, and in 27408, ANYLF's current base of operations, it seems like it once snowed with some regularity, but not so much any more. Which is all to say that it may very well smell like snow out there, but I can't say for sure one way or the other.

It kind of seems as though no one really knows much other than that something is fixing to happen around these parts. Snow, sleet, ice, rain. Some combination of those things. ANYLF would prefer that the power not go out. Other than that, we'll take all four. Supposed to get down near 12 degrees over the weekend. Last week I was worried we weren't having winter. Now we're getting it all at once.

The local forecast on The Weather Channel now comes with sound effects. "Wintry Mix" sounds like someone pouring dried beans into a paper bag.