Dinner with Jeff

Cold, but actually pleasant, for Pax and me, with bright sun and little wind on our morning walk, today.

And then leisurely dinner with Jeff at the Public House in Woodstock as he passes through Batavia on his way from Switzerland to Colorado. Jeff now 20% retired, splitting his time between CERN and Fermilab, while working on remodeling the recently purchased house in Estes Park.

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"This spot where you sit is your own spot. It is on this very spot and in this very moment that you can become enlightened. You don't have to sit beneath a special tree in a distant land."

— THICH NHAT HAHN

Winter's Wrath

Today's polar blast has blown the bottom right out of the thermometer. However, what we have here is not so bad—at least compared to Manitoulin, where an extreme cold warning is in effect. (I wonder if the little woodburning stove in the cottage could keep up with it.) And, it looks like deep cold is on tap for at least the next week.

So my hypothesis that winter is on the wane has been refuted—roundly. Let's hope things improve a bit by June. 

Tonight, in honor of 39 years, I made shrimp scampi, with the shrimp most likely from Rockport, which is where they should be eaten this time of year, and where the temperature today was in the 70s. For dessert Sue made pineapple upside-down cake!

Over shirmp, the two of us looked back to 1976 and saw two (non-drug-using) hippies, one aged 30 and the other 25.

If I remember right (which is unlikely) the wedding was spectacular. Not enough chairs at the church in Crystal Lake, and then a pot-luck reception at Irene's farmhouse in Elgin. Sue wore her homemade KKK gown and I my plaid sportcoat.

But the weather was balmy. 

Will and Me

Today I had the priviledge of picking up Will from ONS (Oconomowoc Nursery School). He gave me a brief tour of his big and bright classroom, and then we headed out to the Baja (in which I had  already installed his car seat—at great pain in the bitter cold). Once in the car, we were on our way to Roots (restaurant/cofffeeshop), and on the way we dsicussed trucks, ice skating, boastful network TV anchors, and car colors. Surprisingly, his favorite color is blue, (where could that have come from?), while I favored black. But, we both thought white was a fine second choice.

Katy and Abby eventually joined us at Roots (well after Will and I had had multiple serious car crashes with the toy trucks supplied in the kids play area) , and then Katy and I got going full steam ahead on knock-knock jokes and riddles, and if you don't know what time it is when an elephant sits on your fence, or what time it is when you should go to the dentist, or why the horologist threw the clock out of the window, then, I suggest, it is time to  head back to preschool.

Making Ice, Ice, Ice

My previous prediction of an easing out of winter was wrong. We are back to serious cold. But on the up-side, the Great Lakes are once again making ice. Oddly, in mid January this year the ice cover was just about the same as last year's, even with its record cold. Since  last month there's been a pause. But now, with the current cold wave, the water is freezing fast. In fact, as of now, both Lake Erie and Lake Ontario are more frozen than they were last year. What has happened, I believe, is that the dip of the vortex has shifted 200 or so miles east, so that while Superior has not been quite as chilly, Erie and Ontario have been colder.

This graph compares this year with last year (the record year) up until mid January.

Interestingly, it is not just temperature that affects ice cover; but also wind. The spikes on this graph occur during times of cold and calm, while the troughs occur when it is windy and the ice gets blown away. Of further interest is the fact that the down-slope of the 2014 graph is much smoother then the up-slope. This is because melting is much easier and smoother than freezing.  Think of popping a Frango mint and how easy melting can be.

Actually, I could use a Frango, or, even better, warmer temperatures, right about now. 

February 11

Over to Madison for a fun day with Nik, and a quick stop at the West Marine store to pick up a quart of bottom paint, for the Windrider and the Susie P—on the assumption that spring and summer will be coming sometime. 

Weather moderate but windy, and the forecast looks grim.

How can the month with the fewest days be the longest? 

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O Wind, If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind? 

—P.B. Schelley

A Room With a View

Today, the drama unfolding outside the breakfast-nook windows was the felling of the willow,  a massive creature with a DBH (as they say in forestry circles and meaning diameter at breast height) of 20 feet —and that's feet, not inches.

Neighbor Vi agreed to let the high-lifter, the giant crane, the jumbo chipper, the bobcat, and several trucks come through her back yard for access, but because of the hard-frozen ground it appears that little damage was done.

The tree, well beyond 100 years old (and perhaps closer to 200) liked where it was, with its toes dipped into the trickling creek that runs through the neighborhood. But it outgrew itself. Last summer it dropped a branch weighing dozens of tons, so it was scary as well as awesome.

Now, sadly, there will be no more Wind In The Willow.

Or course, Bri and Renee have their own willow story to tell. 

Plucked...

...or, A Bad Day At The Bird Feeder.

Sitting in the breakfast nook (where I have a view of the bird feeder, the back yard, and beyond) and working on the computer, my peripheral vision suddenly detected significant movement. I looked up just in time to see old Ms. Sharp-shinned pluck a sparow out of the air, as easily as if she was pulling a grape off the vine.

Then, in one continuing motion she swooped up to a horizontal oak branch onto which she proceeded to stomp her captured sparrow flat. She then took four or five minutes to pluck thecarcass clean before using her hooked bill to pull off chunks of red meat, and devour her catch.

Later in the afternoon, as Pax and I were coming back from our walk, Pax found the Ms. Sharp-shinned on the back stoop. He immediately sent her on her way, but he then stopped to investigate the pile of feathers, and other bits, lying right there on the snow. Apparently, one bird was not enough to a dinner make.

And, apparently, we are seeing natural selection at work. We can only assume that all the little birds who did not get caught were just a bit smarter or just a bit quicker that those who did, and that the next generation will be a little wiser to the ways of the hawk.

Still, I begin to wonder if I am being helpful by supplying food, and thus attracting prey, and putting Ms. Hawk on easy street.

I do know that if she gets lazy, Pax will send her to the happy hunting ground.

Just a Quiet Day

Begun with an unusual dog-walk in which I left Pax outside on the driveway for a minute while I went back inside to fetch somethig I forgot. Back out, with Pax on lead, we crossed often somewhat busy Starin Road, where Pax was, as usual, immediately let off lead to follow me as I started up the still snow-covered and difficult to walk Starin Park hill. About a quarter of the way up I looked back to see what Pax was sniffing only to see, far off at the limit of vision, his tail dissappear, around the corner of our house—way back where we had started from.

Apparently he has been spooked by some loud noise while I was inside getting whatever it was that I forgot. I just hope he looked both ways before crossing the street on his trip home. 

And, here is neighbor Vi's yard, scraped clean by a Bobcat. The idea is to get the ground frozen hard and deep before a big crane comes in to take down the giant willow that is starting to collapse from the other neighbor's yard into hers.  Yesterday's thaw interrupted the plan, but today the thermo meter has been sliding downward, and we are headed back into the realm of cold.

As can be seen from the above example, cold does have it uses—certainly iceboating and tree cutting among them. But about now, one begins to think of tulips and kayaks.  The forecast for the rest of February is dismal, but not nearly so bad as in places like Kagawong or, heaven forbid, Sudbury.

Stinky Skunk

Yes, a February thaw, with the temperature near 40. And, just north of Whitewater (and probably many other places as well), a skunk that had come out of its winter quarters to survey the scene and possibly find a bite to eat. We can only hope that he did not come out only to meet his demise, though the aroma as we drove by suggested otherwise.

Meanwhile, in Oconomowoc, a great, chaotic jumble of kids, dogs, sledding, igloo building, garden planning and seed ordering, and an attempt to set up and check out Wombat, the new iceboat. The only real problem was with Wombat, where it looks like we might have been sold a pig in a poke. Caveat emptor, of course, but there is no doubt that accomplished businessmen like Brian and Tony will find successful resolution. 

Manitowoc Birthday Party

Good conversation and lunch at the Courthouse Pub in celebration of Aunt Janet's birthday. And I was apparently too busy to take photos! 

On the way home, had to divert around Milwaukee because of heavy traffic, and so ended up at Riverknoll where we joined an ongoing cousin party.