synchronicity

A couple weeks ago I commented on RuthieJ's blog about how beautiful I thought southeastern Minnesota looked, but that I had hardly ever been to that part of the state. Really. I have been to the far northeast and southwest corners of Minnesota, and spent some time in St. Peter and Park Rapids, but by far most of my Minnesotan experience has been limited to the east central part of the state.

Last week at work my boss asked me if I would be interested in a training opportunity to be held this fall in southeastern Minnesota. In previous years I would have balked at the time commitment, but now I think the time is right. Plus, in these economic times, I see additional training as a valuable asset in making myself indispensable. ;)

So it looks as though I will be spending a week or two in October in far southeastern Minnesota, becoming fluent in fluvial geomorphology. And maybe spotting some migrant birds?

They say there are no coincidences. I'm starting to believe they are right.

It is March. Let the optimism begin!

...Thoreau's Journal: 2-Mar-1859
As I go through Cassandra Ponds, I look round on the young oak woods still clad with rustling leaves as in winter, with a feeling as if it were their last rustle before the spring, but then I reflect how faraway still is the time when the new buds swelling will cause these leaves to fall. We thus commonly antedate the spring more than any other season, for we look forward to it with more longing. We talk about spring as at hand before the end of February, and yet it will be two good months, one sixth part of the whole year, before we can go a-maying. There may be a month of solid and uninterrupted winter yet, plenty of ice and good sleighing. We may not even see the bare ground, and hardly the water, and yet we sit down and warm our spirits annually with distant prospect of spring. As if a man were to warm his hands by stretching them toward the rising sun and rubbing them.

-From The Blog of Henry David Thoreau

When winter lasts nearly six months out of the year, one tends to greet any sign of the warmer half with gratitude. Whether it is the higher angle of the sun, the paired flight of ravens, or even just the date on the calendar, the distant prospect of spring does warm the soul.

This morning the thermometer read fifteen degrees below zero. I had to look at the calendar to make sure what day it was, as if the lightening eastern sky at 6 AM didn't tip me off. It is March. The month of thawing, freezing, and thawing some more. The month when, early one morning, the first pair of Canada geese will announce their arrival with raucous calls. The month of sandhill cranes, of red winged blackbirds, robins, juncos, hooded mergansers, and woodcock peenting at twilight. The month when one bright sunny day the temperature will rise to 50 degrees and Minnesotans will drop their daily business and head outdoors to bask in the promise of warmth.

These thoughts warmed me as much as the fire in the wood stove and the wool socks on my feet. Sure there will be more snow; it would not be March without it. There will be ice, and slush, and mud, and rain. But we're getting there. Our spirits are thawing with the rising sun.

emerging from the deep freeze

Today's official low temperature from the New House thermometer: -32 F

The temperature on the Subarumometer: -22 F. I'm beginning to think it won't read any lower than that.

I didn't read the cabin thermometer this morning, but applying the formula from yesterday it may have read -40 F.

I have added the Weather Underground sticker so you can keep track of the latest temperatures here. If you care. But at noon it said 16 degrees ABOVE zero. Here at work it is still ten below. I don't believe Weather Underground.

It's not supposed to get too far below zero tonight; it may even stay above. Zero seems to be the big turning point, where we are able to keep the house warm with the wood stove at night. We just got another load of oak yesterday, delivered this time, and it seems to be drier and easier to burn than the load we picked up on New Year's Day.

UPDATE: It turns out the Subarumometer was stuck at -22. I found this out when I left work at 4:30, and it read -22 at that time, when I knew it was maybe a few degrees above zero. As I made my way home, the temperature reading gradually increased, until it read +7 when I arrived at home. Now there's a temperature I can live with!

Does anybody really know how cold it is? (does anybody really care?)

I had three different temperature readings at my home this morning:

The Subarumometer read -22. (This was at 6:45 when I drove the kids out to meet the school bus, only to find no bus. No school. Just about every school in the state is closed. I'll spare you my rant about that. I said enough last night.)

The thermometer by the new house read -27.

The thermometer by the cabin read -35.

How cold was it? Which of these three thermometers is correct?

My answer: all of them. and none of them. It's in the eye of the beholder.

tired of cold weather reporting

Okay, so we've been told it is going to be bone chilling cold tonight. The reasonable among us will not go outdoors unless necessary. We know that, after all we were born and raised in Minnesota. We're used to this.

So I get annoyed at the media weather forecasters who keep emphasizing the predicted wind chill numbers for tonight. Wind chill is a calculated number, and frankly, those of us who are affected by wind chill have no way of knowing whether the calculated numbers are representative of what really goes on out there. It's just another way to exaggerate the perfectly normal human experience, I think.

We just know, from experience, that it is freaking cold out there, the wind just makes it feel worse, and staying indoors is a very good idea.

I just put my faith in the National Weather Service, who says we will hit 30 degrees above by Sunday. Now there's a mid January forecast I can live with!

I must add, a couple of my coworkers are taking the day off tomorrow to go ice fishing. Yes, it's the winter trout opener, and they would not miss it for the world. I would like to go, but I would miss the opener for a nicer day out ice fishing.

being Minnesotan means...

...playing on the ice once in a while. The kids wanted me to drive onto the ice, and there were several vehicles doing so successfully, but my common sense side prevailed.


...Getting out and having a little January fun with the Twins Caravan. Every year, groups of players and coaches tour towns and cities outside of the metro area to meet with fans. We saw pitcher Matt Guerrer, catcher Mike Redmond, and not-quite-Hall of Famer Jack Morris who pitched the best baseball game I have ever watched in 1991. No photo ops though; I had to settle for TC, the mascot. :)

...waking up to -22 degree weather. And actually going outside.