Nose Pinching Weather!

Mercy, it's cold here right now! At high noon the sun was shining brightly and the temperature was showing a cool 10 degrees! Last night my porch thermometer registered a low of -11 degrees. That's MINUS 11 degrees, folks! That's the coldest night we've had for some time. There has also been some wind that makes it feel a great deal colder when you are outside. Of course, there have been Januarys when we've had -20 or -30 temperature readings for several days in a row. That's a real cold snap!

On WCAX this morning there was a warning for people to stay inside unless they absolutely had to go out, and I've been heeding that advice for the past several days. I really haven't been outside except very briefly to get the mail or clear off my deck for a couple of days now. Fortunately we haven't had much snow so I haven't needed to go outside to measure snowfall. This morning I noticed there is a little snow on the deck, but it's hard to tell if it is new snow or what has blown there by the really strong NW winds we've been experiencing. So I decided to wait until the weather warms up and then I'll file a "multi-day report" for CoCoRaHS. 

I've been purging files recently - not because that's what I should do every year, but because I have a lateral hanging file in my office and the load got so heavy that the rods holding the files bowed and let all the files collapse in a  heap. It's a huge undertaking to untangle it. I really don't understand why I've kept some of the stuff I'm finding. It's taking forever to go through some of it because there are so many things I'd forgotten about that are pretty interesting, so I pause often.

I've found notes to myself - and a file labeled "Letters written but not sent" that contains a few epistles written in anger or frustration. After reading them, I was really glad I hadn't sent them and ditched all of them. Writing down what's bothering me is a great way to sort out frustrations and gets it out of my head. When I go back and read what I've written, all the steam is gone and it is insignificant.

I haven't kept diaries since I was in high school, but both my father and my grandfather Bolton kept detailed records in diaries. I remember always getting my father a new diary at Christmas, and he wrote in them for most of his adult life. My grandfather's diaries are mostly about how many loads of hay were hauled or how many acres of potatoes he planted, accounting for money received from eggs, livestock sold, or loans repaid; and the hours hired help worked and amounts they were paid, how much he paid for barrels of flour, bags of sugar, shoes for his children, or to Dr. Wiswell for services rendered. When his first wife, Mary Blodgett died, his only entry that day was, "Mary died today."

My father's diaries were much the same, and I've often wished both those men had at least occasionally expressed their feelings about something. It simply wasn't their nature - both were stoic and logical men.

When we were writing the West Danville history book, we were able to go through some diaries that were completely different. One man complained bitterly about the Vermont weather, people who passed by his house, the new roads being built; but he also wrote with compassion about members of his family and  neighbors and friends. One woman's diaries were like reading a history book, with details about local and national news, but never one cross word or derogatory statement. She may have observed the rule my mother once told me: "Never write anything down that you don't want someone else to read." Good advice, but it sure limits some of the juicy stuff that makes up what people were and are all about!

Stay warm and be safe. Spring is only a few weeks away! Do you have your Joe's Pond Ice-Out tickets yet?