The Fourth Quarter

 

The fourth quarter does not refer to football nor does it refer to the last financial quarter of the year.  My fourth quarter is seasonal and refers to the weather forecast of October, November, and December.  And while these three months have a special event, activity, or holiday associated with them like Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas...  my thoughts are more along the lines of what kind of weather should I be expecting here in East Tennessee, as it will be different in other parts of the country obviously.

October can be a bitch of a month as we have already seen with temps that range from 30 degrees to mid 70 degrees, making this 30% of the fourth quarter not just unpredicable but down right nasty in that many of us will get the flu...

As a boy, I remember Halloween trick or treating being as cold as night where we had to wear tobagons, ear muffs, and gloves.  Of course, we always came home with a full A & P paper grocery bag full of all sorts of candy...  but, because of evil people parents don't trust sending their kids out to houses anymore unless they know the people that live there very well.  And, no child walks around anymore...  their parents drive them.

November is where we start to notice that fall is REALLY here and that we are going to wear warm clothes more this month than cool clothes...  while there is a variation in temps from one day to the next it is not as extreme as October.  But, when we travel to our relatives and friends or they travel to us, there is always a possibility that we will be eating Thanksgiving dinner on the screen-in porch or out on the deck.

However, dinner will not last long as there are football games to be watched or in some States similiar to Tennessee, hunting season opens...  and the males like to grab their rifles and their camoflauged clothing and act macho for a few hours.

December is the last 30% of the fourth quarter and there is no doubt that we realize that the beginning of winter is here and that cold winter is right around the corner.  Although, while east tennessee has relatively mild temps, cities like Baltimore are really cold as is New York City and Boston, but cities like Toronto are freezing their asses off, knowing it is only going to get colder.

Christmas Day is always a toss-up or least has been one recently where if there is no snow predicted in the forecast, then there is a good possibility that the day (but only that day) will be mildly or or mildly warm.

Very little business is done between Thanksgiving and Christmas and I have yet to understand why because this is a time when retail sales usually increase...  but corporations are reluctant to much strategic planning as they are concerned about end-of-the-quarter as well as end-of-the-year profits...  and not donations to charities are tolerated.

Winter for the marketplace has already begun.