Dear Readers,

The winter of 2013-2014 may go down as the winter of the weather report. Some folks have become addicted to checking the latest local weather reports on TV and on our Boothbay Register and Wiscasset Newspaper websites.

With our websites, you don't have to wait for The Weather Channel to play “Local Weather on the 8s.” You can access our website anytime on your smartphone.

This year, in TV land, many of us now know the names of the local and national TV weather casters. We know the tunes, like the “dun, dun dun,” of Storm Central (Channel 6) and the tinkling tones of The Weather Channel.

We even know the names of the storms — at least, we know the names The Weather Channel uses.

This year, they are using names from the ancient classics. Our last storm, the one a few days ago that dumped snow on the roads, was called Hercules, and they call this latest one Ion. Next we can look for Janus and Kronos. Seems to me these are sort of wimpy names for tough storms. Shouldn't they have macho names names like “Jaws” or “Killer”?

I liked it better years ago, when the Channel 8 weather man was a guy on the top of Mt. Washington who looked out the window and told us it was cold and snowing.

Once upon a time

In case you didn't get the memo, this a real Maine winter. Anytime we have to run the water in the pipes in the back bedroom so they don't freeze, it is a real winter.

We have had enough snow, ice and bitter cold to rival the tales of the old timers, who like to say, “When I was a boy, we had real winters.”

And just for the old timers, here is a real winter story.

One time, not so long ago, while visiting a pal in nearby New Harbor, a delightful 102-year-old lady named Sylvia told me a story about a winter that was so cold the ocean froze solid.

Pointing to a home on the shore, she explained it used to be located on an island. Long ago, when the winter ice was thick, she said a crew loaded that house on a sledge, hooked up a team of horses, and pulled it to the shore. And, get this: she said as they inched their way over the ice, there was smoke coming out of the chimney. The lady of the house was busy in the kitchen cooking lunch for the moving crew.

Is it a tall tale? I don't know, but if Sylvia told it, I believe it. I am sure not going to challenge her memory, or her veracity.