Something i like to do in the winter on a sunny day when out with the car somewhere is to park with the sun coming through the front windshield close my eyes and sit there and make believe for a little while that im really at the beach. It feels great! ha.

Thats a great idea with the mailbox in the bucket. Mine gets knocked down by kids often enough.

I only remember being on the road once in the late 80's on route 80 in northwest new jersey where it was too cold out for the salt to melt the ice. It was 1 degree out and all it did was melt and freeze constantly. The gulf stream really helps moderate our weather in the winter.