Well it looks like it's time to give up and succumb to winter - the Indian summer we were so enjoying after a rather dismal summer finally appears to be well and truly over.
However, forecasters tell us the region should be in for a slightly warmer-than-normal winter and given the price of keeping warm, that's a good thing for many people.
Keeping warm in today's financial climate may well have become a matter of weighing up what's more important in many households - making sure the family has enough to eat or keeping the heaters going and waiting for a big power bill.
Even so, we aren't yet in the situation many American families have found themselves in, homeless, often jobless or down to one low income, unable to get medical care even when it's needed because of the cost, living under bridges and in tent cities on the outskirts of cities because shelters are overflowing with people in need of a roof over their heads and a meal.
These are extremely tough and sad times for many around the world and when we see or read how others - in our own country and elsewhere in the world - are struggling, it should make us extra thankful for the things we do have.
