Winter day thermometer

By my astronomical calendar, the first day of winter is not going to be here for nearly four weeks: Saturday, 21 December at 12:11 p.m., to be exact. But by my internal calendar, which is the one that matters most, the first winter's day, which I define as being the first 24-hour period when the temperature never rises above freezing, occurred today, 24 November. The low, as recorded on my trusty minimum-maximum thermometer (a no-doubt illegal model that still uses mercury), was 19 at daybreak; the high, which occurred in the early afternoon, was a "torrid" 24. (These readings, by the way, are degrees F., not C. This is America, after all.) The wind was fierce all day, so the wind chills were down in the single digits. Any moisture in the ground froze, and the soil turned hard. It was quite unpleasant outdoors, but I walked anyway, and then split wood. It, too, was frozen inside: a blessing, really. Wood splits more readily in the cold, which makes it easier to be warmed twice.