Chilling out on solstice eve

We know that Sunday is Christmas and, if the forecast is correct, Mother Nature is giving the North Country a Christmas present. The day after Christmas, temperatures should again exceed single digits and even get above freezing next week. I wonder how Santa avoids frostbite. Is there a windscreen on the sleigh? Our windchills during the next few days are expected to be in the minus 30℉ to minus 40℉ range. I’m debating the pros and cons of clearing a couple of inches of fresh snow off the driveway this afternoon versus waiting until tomorrow’s snowfall of five inches or so ends on Thursday and clearing it all at once. I have my doubts that I come out ahead either way.

I think most, maybe all, of the family’s shopping is done. The big question now is if weather will present obstacles to driving on Christmas / the Son’s birthday. Time for fingers crossed, prayers and Christmas wishes all combined.

yes, it’s as cold as it looks

Photo by J. Harrington

Last Thursday I had an early morning Zoom meeting that got rescheduled to this Thursday. Last Thursday we lost power twice, for most of the morning. At least it wasn’t as cold then as it is now. If we lose power again this Thursday, I may need to resign from the group that’s sponsoring the meetings. Something else we need to keep our fingers crossed about.

I know I’ve been posting a lot about weather the past week or so. Minnesota’s recent weather has been colder and stormier than usual and even usual is barely tolerable to my taste. No doubt I got spoiled growing up along the Atlantic Ocean, where the moderating influence of a large body of salt water meant that really cold temperatures and wind chills were a rarity. The only time I’ve found fowl weather tolerable is when I’ve been duck hunting and then I looked for the ducks to be on the move when we experienced this sequence:

Fust it rained
and then it blew
and then it friz
and then it snew!

I remember one late season trip in Minnesota where we used the runabout to make waves to break up the skim ice forming around the decoys. By the time I got home, the dekes and their anchors were frozen to the bottom of the boat until spring thaw. That was all lots more fund than blowing or plowing snow in a minus 20℉ wind chill. Does it make sense to wish for an early spring as a big Christmas present? I think I’ll leave a note on Santa's cookie plate.

To One Coming North

By Claude McKay

At first you'll joy to see the playful snow, 

  Like white moths trembling on the tropic air, 

Or waters of the hills that softly flow 

  Gracefully falling down a shining stair.

 

And when the fields and streets are covered white 

  And the wind-worried void is chilly, raw, 

Or underneath a spell of heat and light 

  The cheerless frozen spots begin to thaw,

 

Like me you'll long for home, where birds' glad song 

  Means flowering lanes and leas and spaces dry, 

And tender thoughts and feelings fine and strong, 

  Beneath a vivid silver-flecked blue sky.

 

But oh! more than the changeless southern isles, 

  When Spring has shed upon the earth her charm, 

You'll love the Northland wreathed in golden smiles 

  By the miraculous sun turned glad and warm.

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