I know. It's been cold. This past weekend wasn't so bad, but the nights and mornings of the past couple weeks have reminded you that it can't always be summer, or Indian Summer, and that winter really is basically here and you'd better hunker down. The time change always contributes to the feeling that November is a turning point — daylight feels different, via the angle of the sun, you can never make it to the gym by the time it's dark, and the holidays are barreling toward you with every new morning. But now I can confirm that winter really is coming in the next day or so, and there is no escaping it.

We're getting our first "Arctic blast" today and tomorrow, as Weather Underground says, with a cold front moving in from the Gulf of Alaska and some rain on the way too, by Tuesday night.

As the Chronicle reports, the cold temperatures could even hit freezing at higher elevations like Mount Diablo, with the possibility of some dustings of snow up there.

Though it will be sunny and clear after the rain passes through, the highs this week won't get much above 55 degrees in the middle of the day, meaning jackets will be necessary at all times, from here on out. And the nighttime low when we hit Turkey Day is going to be a frigid — by SF standards — 42 degrees.

So, it is time for roasts and stews and robust, gullet-warming red wines, and for music like this — from an album I discovered last winter, but which remains the best fall/winter dinner music there is. The album is Woman by Rhye, and that singer's name is Milosh, and he is a man. No joke.