Category Archives: Weather +Climate

Family, Weather +Climate

Hello Thunder, My Old Friend

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Imbolc                                 Waning Wild Moon

While eating breakfast this morning a loud noise, like a souped up street cleaner, disturbed my cereal.  I asked Kate what it was.  She thought it was a souped up street cleaner, or some other machine outside.  I got up to look.  It was rain.  Pouring rain, buckets, pummeling the roof.  The old snow will take a beating today.

Then, another noise.  Thunder.  An old friend from the warmer seasons.  On your marks, get set, grow.

Kate and I began our 21st year last night at midnight.  Another growing season has begun to push its way toward us, too.  As we celebrate events this year, birthdays, anniversaries, holidays, the growing season, each one gets punctuated with, When we (do this next), you’ll be retired.  This is Kate’s last year at Allina, and she will not be sad to let go.  Medicine has changed and not in a good way.

Family, GeekWorld, Weather +Climate

The Common Experience

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Imbolc                                                  Waning Wild Moon

“The one common experience of all humanity is the challenge of problems.” – R. Buckminster Fuller

I’ve had a lot of our common experience today.  Both of my computers have gone mute.  The Gateway, on which I’m writing my novel and doing art history research, I don’t mind.  This one, though, on which I listen to music from Folk Alley, Skype with the grandkids and watch videos on many websites, well, I do mind.

I spent several hours today under the hood of this device, trying this, trying that.  I don’t know.  My main speaker doesn’t show any electricity getting to it, but I’ve checked all the connections.  Frak, as they would say on Galactica.  Part way Geek but not far enough.  But enough about my common experience, Bucky.

We’ve had a run of weather that has not suggested much in the way of commentary for my weatherblog on the Star-Trib weatherwatcher site.  High pressure has kept us stable and reasonably warm.  Not a bad thing, even, perhaps, a good thing, since evaporation without rapid melting reduces the chance of flooding in the Red River Valley.

Kate has got her sewing machine humming, churning out princess regalia for the soon-to-be 4 queen in waiting of Pontiac Street.  She bought 4, 4, tiara’s for Ruth today.  A couple of cute outfits for the Gabester’s 2nd birthday, they’re both April babies, and a new shower head completed her longest shopping excursion since her back surgery.  She’s feeling a lot better, more stamina.  More sass.

Humanities, Weather +Climate

The Sun! The Sun!

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Imbolc                                        Waning Wild Moon

On these days I often think of Fantasy Island, when Tatto would say, The plane!  The plane!  I want to run outside in the street and yell, The sun!  The sun!  After a long run of dreary weather the sight of the sun climbing higher and higher in the sky bucks us up and makes us eager for the end of winter.  By now we have earned our spring and the joys of the cold and snow have begun to fade when weighed against the possibility of flowers and vegetables and outdoor walks.

Most of us do not come to this place without some regret and I’m among them, a part of me yearning for the depths of winter with its ascetic cold and its spare landscape, but the gardener in me has begun to awaken, thinking of which vegetable to put in which plot, how much, what new flowers might look good.

Another 1,300 words in before Kate and I began to check our work chapter 6 of Wheelock.  She’s improving fast, as I knew she would.  Working together does make a difference, a major positive difference.  And just think how surprised the natives will be when we start using our newly acquired Latin on them.

What’s that?  All dead?  Really?  Whoa, that’s a pity, all this language and no place to speak it.

Sierra Club legcom tonight.  7:00 pm sharp.

Dogs, Weather +Climate

49 Degrees!

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Imbolc                                 Full Wild Moon

Paul Douglas says we reach 49 for an average high by the end of this month.  Wow.  That will be a dramatic change.

Right now the garden looks as it has since roughly mid-December, snow covered.  Today well defined shadows lead back to a bright sun shining in a clear sky.  The squirrel that took up house-keeping or food storage underneath the snow outside my study window seems to have abandoned his effort.  A rabbit comes by with some regularity to eat our shrubs.  We lost a wonderful, mature mugo pine to rabbits three or four years ago.

Rigel and Vega come back in every day with snow on their muzzles.  These big dogs love plunging into the snow for voles or mice they detect.  Every once in a while, they score.

Business meeting time.  Bye for now.

Weather +Climate

Sunday

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Imbolc                                        Waxing Wild Moon

Sitting smack in the middle of the continent mother nature’s worst usually passes us by and heads instead for coastal regions, islands, the ring of fire or arid areas.  Chile.  Hilo, Hawai’i. Kobe, Japan.  Miami or New Orleans.

Yeah, we get the occasional blast of heavy snow, the odd derecho and tornado, big hail (as bad as big hair), but I can’t honestly say any of these rise to earthquake, volcanic eruption, tsunami, hurricane proportions.  That’s not to say  our life is boring here.  Quite the opposite.  We have four full seasons and plenty of interesting weather.

We just got passed by on the wrath of God, city destroying events some others find part of their life.

With a temperature of 37 you’d think the snow would disappear fast, but our northfacing land keeps snow.  We have winter a week or two longer than most folks, including the people right across the street.  Sorta strange.

More novel dreamed into existence.  A bit of Sunday drifted by.  Stuff happening, but slow.  Good.

Vega woke up without a limp this morning.  We both felt relieved. So did she I imagine.

Weather +Climate

Potholes. Puddles. Slush. Oh, Boy.

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610temp_new

Imbolc                                       Full Wild Moon

March will come in under a full Wild Moon.  It will also come in gently, according to the weather reports.  It will not, however, be all calm and sunshine.  March is a transition month here in the North Country, one that can swing from melting snow to blizzards and high drifts.

Right now this graphic from the Climate Prediction Center of NOAA suggests an above average chance for above average temperatures over the next 6-10 days.  Puddles.  Potholes.  Slush.

Stay tuned though.  March has moods and they can swing under a full Wild Moon.

Asia, Faith and Spirituality, Weather +Climate

Don’t like the weather? Tough.

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Imbolc                               New Moon (Wild)

We have more snow.  Not a lot, maybe a couple of inches.  It makes the whiteness fresh.

Some folks have begun to complain that this winter has gone on too long and that this snow insults us.  The weather is.  It neither goes on too long, nor stops too soon.  Our food may run out before the winter ends, but that’s our dilemma, not the weather’s.  Our patience may wear out with weather too cold or too snowy or too icy, but the weather comes and it goes, our attitude toward it is what needs to change, not the weather.  The weather may wreck our garden, ruin our crops, or give us bounty.  Again, the weather causes rain, heat, drought, cool days and hot nights, what use we can make of them or what harm they may create for our horticulture or agriculture reflects our needs, not those of the planet’s air and water circulation systems.

Better for us to adapt ourselves to the changes, to find in our lives the place for adjustment.  As Taoism teaches, we need to align ourselves with the movements of heaven.  This is even true of our political work.  We need to act politically in a way that utilizes the forces and realities of the moment rather than railing against their injustice or patting ourselves on the back for their justice.  This too is aligning ourselves with the movements of heaven.

Aging, Faith and Spirituality, Holidays, Weather +Climate

Not Wild. Not Yet.

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Imbolc                                    New Moon (Wild)

With the weather calm, blue skies and no wind, welcoming the Wild Moon seems a bit off point.  As February ends, though, and we head into March the character of the Wild Moon will show up.  Soon, the push and pull between winter’s resistance and spring’s temperate insistence will create storms as we oscillate back and forth until the sun’s rising angle makes spring inevitable.  The next  six weeks are a real meteorological festival when our latitudes entertain a host of weather’s finest celebrities:  sudden snow fall, driving rain, howling winds, sleet, ice and bursts of warmth.  Get ready to be entertained.  It will be, well, wild.

This morning the grocery store was full of shoppers with some aspect of Valentine’s day on their mind.  They bought candy, two for one ribeyes and items for their honey’s favorite meal.  As I checked out the clerk, a young woman with orange/red hair asked me if I had special plans for Valentines.  Yes, I told her, it’s my birthday and my wife and I will go out to eat.  What about you? I asked.  Oh, she said, I work until 2:00, then hanging out with friends I guess.  It’s a day for people that love each other to show that.  She  sounded a bit sad.

When I got back there were boxes inside from the mail, one from Singapore and two from Bonaire, Georgia.  One came yesterday from Denver.  Fun.

I’m dickering with Groveland UU to become a field instructor for an intern they want to hire.  It’s an old problem for me.  They don’t have much money, but the time commitment involves travel as well as an hour plus with the intern, once a week for nine months.  A lot of time for me.  Yet, mentoring is, I believe, an important part of our role as we get older, so I want to do it.

Family, Health, Weather +Climate, Writing

Frosty Saturday

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Imbolc                              New Moon (Wild)

Outside temp is 11.6 degrees and the dewpoint is around 9.  With them so close together, we have two phenomenon at once: more hoarfrost as the water precipitates out on shrubs, tree limbs, fences, porch rails, then freezes and fog.  Visibility is low here and the same conditions which create hoarfrost makes roads slick.  An odd combination.  We also have what looks like snow, but I think is actually flakes forming near the ground as cool air freezes water vapor.  Fog is a cloud on or near the earth so we could be witnessing outside what usually happens in the skies above us.

After printing out 40,000 words of new novel (redundant), which represents all I’ve written so far, I decided this was a good time to revise, go back, get familiar with its arc again after a week off.  That’s underway now.

It’s also Saturday, grocery day.  I can go any day of the week I want, but my patterning about grocery shopping on Saturday is very strong.  I know it, but don’t change it.

Kate has finished her second week of work.  She has come through them in much better shape than pre-surgery, yet she is not without pain.  Her neck bothered her last night and her hip has grown progressively worse.  She thinks digging the Celica out of the snowbank last week did some damage, so she’s not taking any of this as too bad a sign just yet.  She is visibly better than before, her face less tight at the end of the work day and her movements less stiff.  Still, as she says, she’s rather retire.  Soon.

Aging, Garden, Weather +Climate

As It Is, So Shall It Be

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Imbolc                                         Waning Cold Moon

We have hoarfrost on fences, tree limbs, shed roofs.  I looked out yesterday afternoon and it fell to the ground like snow from two big cottonwoods.  Shrubs appear limned in light as the morning sun refracts through the hoarfrost on their branches.  We have a white, soft landscape that carries the long shadows of morning in their full definition.

This February has been outspoken in its winter voice.  The woodchuck in Pennsylvania saw his shadow, so we might have a February and early March filled with cold and snow.  That’s ok with me.

I’ve been waiting for the gardening bug to hit me, usually it happens around New Years.  It did a bit.  I got a couple of seed catalogs and spent time sifting through them.  Then, however, the feeling went away, submerged I guess by the unrelenting nature of this seasons winter.  Kate says it’ll return and I hope she’s right.  We’ve got a lot of garden that will need care soon, well, relatively soon.

Meanwhile I get messages from Mexico, Georgia, Singapore and Bangkok, places where winter either never happens or lands with a light brush.  Watching Burn Notice last night I felt for the first time a pang of envy at the easy way the characters moved the Miami climate.

It’s been a busy time for me, something I generally embrace, but I also love downtime.  I’d better not keep writing here or I’m going to write myself into a fit of melancholy, not what I want or need right now.  So, Vale, amici!