WITH SPRING JUST A COUPLE OF MONTHS AWAY, WE'RE ABOUT TO GET OUR FIRST TASTE OF WINTER

It's awfully easy to get used to a mild winter. Folks in Southeast Missouri and Southern Illinois have been lulled into a season of cool nights and mild days.

Some have watched their tulips and daffodils put up shoots.

So it was a surprise when, on Thursday morning, we got a taste of winter. But later in the day the sun came out, and even though it was cold, we still went around without our coats on.

Once you get in the mild-winter habit, it's really hard to break. Now the mercury in the thermometer on the back porch is about to take a nose dive. There are signs of those nasty forms of precipitation: freezing rain and sleet.

Welcome to winter, finally. Spring is just two months away.