Speaking of the weather
06/01/25 01:38
I’m not sure how I should feel about the weather. Although it has been 4 1/2 years since we retired and moved to the Pacific Northwest, I haven’t quite acclimatized to this place where I now live. It reminds me in some ways of the decade that we lived in Boise, Idaho on the edge of the great American desert. We never got used to the dry conditions and lack of wind. I know how to live where the winter weather can be severe. I’ve got the right clothing to layer up for freezing temperatures. There is a plug in on the front of my truck to connect a block heater for cold starting conditions. I think I have plugged it in a couple of times since we moved, but I doubt that it was really necessary.
I don’t know whether to feel smug or guilty as winter Storm Blair hammers much of Canada and a host of states to our east. States of emergency have been declared in at least seven states and there a places from Alberta to Washington DC where more than a foot of snow has fallen. Travelers are facing cancelled and delayed flights and the media is saying the temperatures are the coldest and the snowfall the heaviest in more than a decade.
I have readers of my journal who live in some of the places affected by the polar vortex. Meanwhile we may get a bit of light frost overnight tomorrow. Temperatures will remain in the 40s and 50s for the rest of the week. Being accustomed to life in colder places, we’ve got our garden buttoned up for the winter, but we have neighbors who have plenty of blooming flowers in their yards that they may need to cover. I was thinking that with Christmas and New Year’s Day past, perhaps I ought to put out my bird feeders for a few months, but I haven’t gotten them out yet.
I’m not bragging. I really don’t know how to feel about the weather. When we decided to move out here, friends warned me about the rainfall and cloudy days. It does rain a lot here and we don’t get anywhere near as many sunny days as other places we have lived, but I suspect that i somehow am a bit less vulnerable to seasonal affective disorder than some others. The urge to head to Southern California or Arizona hasn’t seized me the way it does some of our friends. But I do miss winter. I’ve lived almost all of my life in places with four seasons, and from my point of view we only get three around here. Since I love all four seasons, I don’t really have any complaints about the seasons we do have. I like being able to get into the garden a bit earlier and having fresh flowers a bit later than other places we have lived. But I miss snowy days and the sense of knowing how to get by when the weather gets cold.
Before we moved, I was happy to sell my snowblower. I even considered getting rid of my insulated coveralls, though I’m glad I kept them. I don’t need a machine to blast through heavy drifts around here, but I barely get to use my snow shovel at all and I don’t have much driveway or sidewalk to shovel at this house. All of the school buses around here have auto chains, but I suspect that some of the drivers have never actually deployed them. The decision about calling snow days for school is made by the County Sheriff's Office which means that one icy hill somewhere in the Cascade foothills results in school cancellation here on the coast. In a way it seems somehow wrong to cancel school on a day when there isn’t enough snow to make a snowman or slide a sled down the hill.
The big storm is moving off to the east. Parts of Virginia, Maryland, and Washington DC are due to take the brunt of the weather today, but it seems unlikely that the weather is severe enough to interrupt the Congress’s meeting to formally certify the presidential election. Although I have plenty of fears about the outcome of the election and the years to come for our beloved country, I’m gratified that Congress is able to conduct business as usual during the storm.
I loved to keep going in harsh weather when I lived in the Dakotas. It felt like a minor victory to make it to the church when others were staying home. While I encouraged those who had trouble getting around in the weather to stay home, I wanted to keep the church open and conduct regular worship despite the weather. I only agreed to cancel worship when the police issued a no travel order. People who live in much colder places manage to go on with their business despite harsh weather. I admire the fishers who work the waters of the north Atlantic when the sun does not rise all day long and the temperatures hang around -40. In the winter the trucks keep suppling communities at the end of the Dempster and Dalton highways. The airplanes continue to fly in Yellowknife through the winter. People get up and go to work and survive and thrive in winter.
Climate scientists warn that temperatures could rise by as much as 3 degrees C in the next couple of decades, but -40, which is the same in Celsius as in Fahrenheit warmed by 3 degrees is still around -35F. That’’s cold enough to freeze any exposed skin in minutes. Life will still be harsh in the north country. There still will be brave and intrepid souls for my grandchildren to admire.
Meanwhile, I’m going for walks wearing a hooded sweatshirt and often a rain jacket. I don’t struggle to get to the grocery store or dive to church. I have to admit that I’ve got it easy. I still don’t know whether to feel smug or guilty.
I don’t know whether to feel smug or guilty as winter Storm Blair hammers much of Canada and a host of states to our east. States of emergency have been declared in at least seven states and there a places from Alberta to Washington DC where more than a foot of snow has fallen. Travelers are facing cancelled and delayed flights and the media is saying the temperatures are the coldest and the snowfall the heaviest in more than a decade.
I have readers of my journal who live in some of the places affected by the polar vortex. Meanwhile we may get a bit of light frost overnight tomorrow. Temperatures will remain in the 40s and 50s for the rest of the week. Being accustomed to life in colder places, we’ve got our garden buttoned up for the winter, but we have neighbors who have plenty of blooming flowers in their yards that they may need to cover. I was thinking that with Christmas and New Year’s Day past, perhaps I ought to put out my bird feeders for a few months, but I haven’t gotten them out yet.
I’m not bragging. I really don’t know how to feel about the weather. When we decided to move out here, friends warned me about the rainfall and cloudy days. It does rain a lot here and we don’t get anywhere near as many sunny days as other places we have lived, but I suspect that i somehow am a bit less vulnerable to seasonal affective disorder than some others. The urge to head to Southern California or Arizona hasn’t seized me the way it does some of our friends. But I do miss winter. I’ve lived almost all of my life in places with four seasons, and from my point of view we only get three around here. Since I love all four seasons, I don’t really have any complaints about the seasons we do have. I like being able to get into the garden a bit earlier and having fresh flowers a bit later than other places we have lived. But I miss snowy days and the sense of knowing how to get by when the weather gets cold.
Before we moved, I was happy to sell my snowblower. I even considered getting rid of my insulated coveralls, though I’m glad I kept them. I don’t need a machine to blast through heavy drifts around here, but I barely get to use my snow shovel at all and I don’t have much driveway or sidewalk to shovel at this house. All of the school buses around here have auto chains, but I suspect that some of the drivers have never actually deployed them. The decision about calling snow days for school is made by the County Sheriff's Office which means that one icy hill somewhere in the Cascade foothills results in school cancellation here on the coast. In a way it seems somehow wrong to cancel school on a day when there isn’t enough snow to make a snowman or slide a sled down the hill.
The big storm is moving off to the east. Parts of Virginia, Maryland, and Washington DC are due to take the brunt of the weather today, but it seems unlikely that the weather is severe enough to interrupt the Congress’s meeting to formally certify the presidential election. Although I have plenty of fears about the outcome of the election and the years to come for our beloved country, I’m gratified that Congress is able to conduct business as usual during the storm.
I loved to keep going in harsh weather when I lived in the Dakotas. It felt like a minor victory to make it to the church when others were staying home. While I encouraged those who had trouble getting around in the weather to stay home, I wanted to keep the church open and conduct regular worship despite the weather. I only agreed to cancel worship when the police issued a no travel order. People who live in much colder places manage to go on with their business despite harsh weather. I admire the fishers who work the waters of the north Atlantic when the sun does not rise all day long and the temperatures hang around -40. In the winter the trucks keep suppling communities at the end of the Dempster and Dalton highways. The airplanes continue to fly in Yellowknife through the winter. People get up and go to work and survive and thrive in winter.
Climate scientists warn that temperatures could rise by as much as 3 degrees C in the next couple of decades, but -40, which is the same in Celsius as in Fahrenheit warmed by 3 degrees is still around -35F. That’’s cold enough to freeze any exposed skin in minutes. Life will still be harsh in the north country. There still will be brave and intrepid souls for my grandchildren to admire.
Meanwhile, I’m going for walks wearing a hooded sweatshirt and often a rain jacket. I don’t struggle to get to the grocery store or dive to church. I have to admit that I’ve got it easy. I still don’t know whether to feel smug or guilty.
