Snow, Meteors and Cold

Downtown River Falls, WI. Saturday morning, 12/11/2010

Just thought I’d check in. It’s been very busy around here for me, and there is no end in sight. Events to attend for the next six days and nights in a row, and by then, I'm sure we'll be getting into the Christmas preparations in earnest. As some may have heard, we received the fifth largest snow fall in history over last weekend. I couldn’t tell you what the official inch count was, but the wind blew much of it into drifts, some of which were knee deep to a giraffe! My old snow blower didn’t work. I’m going out today and buying another one, after morning coffee of course.

I’m posting a few shots of my back yard from the seasons over the past year. It really doesn’t give you a reference of the extreme cold that followed the storm. The coldest night was 21 degrees below zero Fahrenheit, ( I’m not sure what that is Celsius, but I do know they are the same someplace way down below zero).

This is looking out my back door sometime in early October 2010

It has since warmed up a bit and today, it is projected to be a high of 20 degrees with a 30% chance of snow.

Many of you live in warmer climates and I’m sure I’ll hear those that don’t have to deal with cold and snow thanking the heavens that they don’t have to be cold or how fortunate they are and how screwed I am because I live in Wisconsin. Go ahead, give me your best shot. I can take it. After all, I choose to live here. But I do travel and get a change of weather and scenery at least once during the cold dark Winter months.

View of the yard in November 2010

Speaking of cold and dark, the Winter Solstice is just days away. Next Tuesday is the first day of Winter and the longest period of darkness at the longitude and hemisphere of River Falls, WI. It’s also a full moon that night. And an added bonus, there is a total lunar eclipse of the moon! I’m planning on attending a ceremony that evening and it will include a fire.

I did catch some of the Geminid Meteor Shower activity in the wee hours of the morning Tuesday, (Monday night). I went to bed early and got up for some middle of the night business around 2:00 AM. I stood by the sliding glass patio window and peered out into the North by Northeast sky. There was no ground light. Some of the predictions were for up to 120 meteors per hour. I stood there for at least ten minutes straight and I saw a half dozen. I took a seat at the computer for a while and made note of what I was doing up at this hour on Facebook, then I went and watched some more.

This photo is from the above referenced article about the Geminid Meteor Shower

It was a beautiful show. Nature usually doesn’t disappoint. I managed to actually put on my fleece lined Crocs and step outside and stand there for a good minute or two and let the cold hug me before I returned to the shelter of my indoor viewing platform. I did notice that on such a cold night, the frigid air comes barreling through the old seal on that patio door. I did get a new door to install, one with high “E” glass, but didn’t get it put in. Now, there is no way I’m opening up a six by eight foot hole in the wall until we get a warm spell. By the way, a warm spell here is temperatures in the 30’s. Thirty degrees in January here is warmer than 65 degrees in Key West in January, trust me, I’ve experienced that phenomenon.

During last Saturdays storm, December 11, 2010
click to enlarge, you can see the tree line as a darkened area beyond the branches.

At any rate, take care folks. Don’t worry about me, I’ll be fine. We actually have furnaces in our homes and stay quite comfortable. We also have heaters in our vehicles and seasonal clothing options that include wonderful items like long johns, thermal socks and flannel lined jeans, not to mention the goose down parka, wool hat and choppers.

What a difference a day makes
Sunday morning, the day after the storm, 12/12/2010

Enjoy your day. Peace to all