Blue Christmas
Tember got a callback from the Madison Repertory Theater. She got the part as Tiny Tim in A Christmas Carol! She’s been hobbling around the house, though, for the past day, reciting her line: “God bless us everyone.”
23
Dec
Category Archives: Adventures at Home
21
Dec
Winter
Well, it officially started today at 6:04 am, but it’s already one of the more intense winters I’ve ever experienced. Here’s what my street looked like this morning:
You can see how the snow banks lining people’s driveways are taller than the cars parked along the road. That and the fact that I got frostbite taking the picture leads me to believe we’re in for a whopper. It’s was -8 degrees and the wind chill had it dipping below -30. When I came inside, I had to amputate three fingers.
I used my remaining seven fingers to search for some climate history for Wisconsin. The coldest temperature ever recorded was -55 F on Feb. 2 & 4, 1996, near Couderay (Sawyer Co.). Never heard of that town.
I have heard of Milwaukee, though. That’s where a blizzard shut the city down for two days when it dumped 23.6 inches of snow on January 29th and 30th, 1947. Apparently, winds blew drifts to the height of 10 feet.
Some other snow records:
- Greatest daily total – Neillsville, 26.0 inches of snow on Dec 27, 1904.
- Greatest single storm total – Superior, 31.0 inches Oct 31-Nov. 2, 1991.
- Greatest monthly total – Hurley, 103.5 inches Jan. 1997.
- Greatest seasonal total – Hurley, 301.8 inches in 1996-97 winter season.
- Deepest snow on ground (excluding drifts) – Hurley, 60.0 inches on Jan. 30, 1996.
Looking at averages instead of extremes shows that January and February are typically colder than December. February was clearly the coldest month on average in 2007, but January is the coldest month if we go by “normal temperatures.”
So it would seem logical that we’re in for even worse weather for the rest of the winter.
But I don’t know if that’s how it works. Nor do I really want to research it anymore given that it took me about an hour to find all of the above. Researching weather history is a black hole: the information is so plentiful and is organized by such a wide variety of search criteria (extremes, averages, climate, precipitation, deviation from normal — it just doesn’t end), you end up navigating through years’ worth of data and charts. Like this one, which shows average snowfalls by month:
Again, it seems plausible to predict that we’re in for even more snow this winter. But who knows? The only thing that’s clear is that enduring a certain amount of weather oppression is actually good for team morale, so to speak. It makes small talk easy, and it gives people a common enemy. In the past two weeks, I’ve had some of the easiest, most fluid conversations with strangers that I can ever remember having. And there’s a certain excitement in the air, the same kind you feel when your local sports team is doing really well in the playoffs or whatever.
So I’m choosing to look on the bright extreme bright side. Thank God I don’t live in California. Or worse yet, Jamaica. That would suck.
19
Dec
Why I’m Actually Disappointed in Today’s Snow Day
Last year’s winter was impressive. We had total snowfall amounts that exceeded 100 inches, which was a record for the Madison area. We also had three snow days, which may have been a record for Madison’s School District, notorious for not shutting down. But the result of all that fun was that we had to add nine minutes to every school day from March or April onward, since the rule is that snow days #1 and #2 are freebies, but any number above that needs to be made up.
This year’s winter is already on track to top last year’s, and with today’s snow day, the second of the season, we’re headed toward that third one, which will mean longer days. A fourth and fifth snow day would probably lengthen the school year.
Today would have been an easy day. Nothing much happens on the final day before winter break, and it’s not like we really needed relief since we’re on the eve of a two-week hiatus anyhow. Plus, given a choice between working today or working an extra day in June, it’s a no-brainer. Students today would have been light-hearted and happy. Students in June will be obnoxious. And in June, they won’t wear enough clothes or enough deodorant.
Not that I’m really complaining. But imagine if you were only allowed 10 pieces of candy throughout the course of a year. In mid-October, you might deny the offer, what with Halloween right around the corner.
Sure, you’d eat those sticks of licorice or gummi bears or chocolate raisins, but as you’d do so, a solitary tear would stream down your cheek.
15
Nov
Every Day’s an Adventure
When I grabbed the bowl from the dishwasher this morning, I looked at it to be sure it was clean. I even moved it around a little to see how the light caught the inner surface of the bowl, which glistened with a sparkle that could only mean it had been run through a dishwashing cycle.
So I poured my Grape-Nuts into the bowl, added a chopped-up apple, and ate my breakfast. Somewhere just past the mid-way point, though, I noticed a slight roughness on the edge of the bowl. A closer inspection revealed it to be a small spot of dried lentil soup, dinner from two nights prior.
“That’s strange,” I whispered to myself, and I resumed eating. Our most recent brand of detergent isn’t quite as effective as our previous one was. The occasional stain seems to get by. But no harm, no foul, as they say.
Like I always do after eating a bowl of cereal, I set the dish on the floor and called the dog to come lap up the remains. “Pre-wash” we call it; our ritual after every breakfast and dinner is to allow the dog to spit shine the dishes before we place them in the dishwasher, fill it up with some good antibacterial soap, and let it run.
That’s when it occurred to me what I’d just done.
02
Sep
Tember
I’ve been using the final days of summer to delve into “vector art,” which is Adobe Illustrator’s unique way of drawing — a lot easier and more computer-oriented than hand drawing in Photoshop.