On Weather and Such

Not much action weatherwise to report tonight.  The day was fairly Januaryish with temperatures in the 20's, a little light snow off and on, and very little sunshine.  There is still lots of ice under a skimming of new snow, which makes walking (and driving on the back roads) a little iffy, but with caution, we can navigate pretty well.

Bill, Monika and the girls, Tangeni and JoAnn, arrived home safely from Namibia, Africa, late yesterday afternoon.  They were tired, but glad to be home, in spite of the deep cold.  They stopped at our house on their way home, and we were delighted to see them all.  Even in just four weeks, Tangeni has changed - she's mastered the wink she was working on at Thanksgiving, and seems to have enlarged her vocabulary somewhat, and the ability to put whole sentences together.  JoAnn told us she also learned a few bad habits from her little cousins in Namibia - like hitting and screaming.  She hadn't forgotten about Woody, our cat, and he certainly remembered her.  He immediately woke up from his nap when he heard her voice, and the two of  them "hung out" together the whole time.  When it was time to go home, Tangeni insisted he must go with her, and displayed a bit of displeasure when Woody disappeared (with a little help from us) into the basement.  The family will all get back on schedule in the next few days, and JoAnn has some makeup work to do at school she told us she's not really looking forward to.

Today I've been editing transcriptions of the interviews done for the Cabot oral history book, and I came upon a term I have never heard before.  The late Jennie Smith Donaldson was talking about harvesting corn when she was young and lived on Whittier Hill in Cabot, saying they "stook" it.  Sure enough, I looked it up and it's an old fashioned term, meaning to stand the corn stalks with the heads together to dry.  Her family I believe, came from Scotland.  Folks back then grew sweet corn for eating, a field corn for the animals, and nearly everyone planted some for popcorn.  They were almost entirely self sufficient, neighbors helping neighbors. 

Something else I came across, this time when I was reading one of Burr Morse's recent newsletters a few days ago, and he mentioned how, when it's very cold, you'll hear maple trees bang loudly - like your house does sometimes, when it's below zero.  I happened to hear that one day about a week ago when I was walking up the hill on one of those very cold days.  I'd forgotten how trees do that in the cold.  At first I thought it might be something that had fallen or someone was pounding over at our neighbor's, but  then realized what I'd heard.  It reminded me of when we lived at the pond and used to hear the ice rumbling and cracking.  I've been told that is air under the ice, and doesn't necessarily have to do with temperature, but I Googled it and came up with this site, complete with a recording of "ice sounds" - not exactly as I remember them, but  interesting.

I happened upon this photo taken January 7, 2007, and noticed we didn't have much snow on the ground that year, either.  Lots of bare ground on the east side of the pond.  After the rain tomorrow, we may look a lot like we did in 2007.  I looked back on the blog at what I'd written on that date, and I said then the weather seemed more like April than January.  It turned bitterly cold a few days after that, though, so these crazy temperature swings and the exasperating washing away of our snow is not uncommon.  

Fred was telling me today that some scientist he read about recently said we have become "weather wimps" these days, and the storms we are experiencing are not at all unusual - well, you can read what they said by clicking on the link.  I read some of it, but it didn't make me feel any warmer, and I doubt the folks who are experiencing below zero weather and blowing snow across the nation will feel very good about being called wimps.  However, we were saying Tuesday night that at least we have a new phrase to add to our vocabulary, "polar vortex."  Weather folks are using it, you'll hear it at cocktail parties, and I bet it's been mentioned by more than one classroom teacher, and all sorts of people who want to impress someone.  It's "in" - it's the "phrase of the moment," and fun to say; but best of all, it gives us something to blame for the weather that most of us are still convinced is generally peculiar and confusing.