Snowbirds - pause for reflection

[RangerJay]

We passed an annual winter milestone today - morning temperature of minus 30 degreees C. Although my photography skills don't do it justice crisp winter temperatures (which we truly like) seem to generate particularly beautiful sunrises and sunsets. This shot, taken this morning, is from the front of our garage looking across the neighbours back yard .... thought you Snowbirds might want to remember what nostril pinching weather looks like! ....

.... next milestone is minus 40 ..... eat your heart out!


Jay

[SteveH]

Jay, I'm am soooo happy you are happy, but that's not for me.

We too, passed a milestone the other day....it actually froze! Even had to turn the heat on!

[CanoeStream]

It's snowing beautifully right now! And I played tour guide at the Alamo for my daughter & her boyfriend six weeks ago. You can have it both ways.

[Aage]

Jay,

All the brass monkeys around here are on the run, too.

[Happycampers]

Hello .... Nice to see but you can have it... we stayed home last winter and it was the worst in 60 years.... rather sweep sand out of the Argosy..

[willyd]

It is a little cool here in Melbourne - only got to 70 degrees today.

[slowmover]

Winter is almost here: Nights at or below 40F (04.5 C)

[Foiled Again]

Originally Posted by Aage

Jay,

All the brass monkeys around here are on the run, too.

"Cold enough to freeze the balls off of a brass monkey" doesn't mean what you think.

In the days of wooden ships, cannon balls had to be stacked on the deck handy for firing. The normal pyramid was 4x4, topped by 3x3, topped by 2x2, with a single ball on the top. Now of course as the ship rolled the cannon ball stack would come undone, so someone decided to build a rack that would grip the lowest level of balls like a monkey's paw.

The first "monkeys" were made out of cast iron.

But lo, there was a serious problem. The cast iron rack and the cast iron cannon balls rusted together within days in the salty sea air.

So, as sailors normally do, they decided to improve the next generation by making it out of brass - a fine seagoing metal that corrodes much more slowly.

Unfortunately, brass does have one downside, it contracts more and faster in cold weather than does cast iron, so on a freezing cold day the "brass monkey" would literally contract so much it would pop the balls off the stack. Hence, "cold enough to freeze the balls off of a brass monkey".


Paula

[markdoane]

Aye, but I was n'ere on a ship tha' used brass monkies, we always stored the cannon balls in the shot garlands, b'lo deck.

[85MH325]

Paula, Since it's been in single digits here overnight, and an ice storm followed by up to 6" of new snow barreling down on us, I figured that makes me qualified to comment. Not actually intending to steal the thread, the "brass monkey" saying has always fascinated me. Wikipedia has an interesting treatise on it, as does Snopes.

Roger

[LJH]

Great job Paula! I'm always amazed at how much of the English language comes from the sea.

[Mike Leary]

It's in the seventies in Ajo, but if we miss the cold, Flagstaff is just a few hours away.

[Pick]

Here ya go, temperature on my west patio:



Updates every 5 minutes.

[Aage]

Paula, arrrrrh, ye be right, methinks, lass!

Regarding the change of the weather, there's two things that I always think of when people living in the South (y'all, as youse say down there) start bragging about how nice it is in the winter:

1. I can't imagine the boredom of having only one season. Or two, actually, since many places, say San Francisco (or was it San Jose?) for one, get a lovely summer, then rain every day for months on end. Oh sure, it gets nice at the end of the day, but nothing more depressing than rain, day after day. It's like living in Vancouver.
2. The other thing is that global warming is going to turn where YOU live into a Desert From Heck, while we will then have the Nice weather.

For me, at least, it's always a pleasure to have the new season to look forward to. The rebirth of Spring, the "bursting forth" of greenery, following the cold, somewhat suspended feeling of a long winter, the "black and white" part of the year. Then the lovely lushness of summer, followed by the page turning as fall comes, bringing gusty winds that knock the leaves off of most trees...

No, I love where I live. Today for example, it was quite cold and crisp, and as I walked around the corner to pick up the mail, I saw a group of kids runnng home carrying books, screaming, laughing, and pelting each other with snowballs.

Sure, there are lots of days where we freeze our asterisks off, but seeing a bright sunny day with everything sparkling like it's encrusted in diamonds?

Priceless...

[68 Overlander]

Love the four seasons. When I lived in AL and TX, we bitched when it got down to 32 because its not supposed to be that cold period...but when I lived in Germany and now ID, we pray for snow so the kids can ski and the resorts can make money.
There is something to be said for a white Christmas. There's also something to be said for an early spring.

[overlander64]

The winter scene photos are great, but this past weekend reinforced part of my reason for moving to Southern Illinois -- minimal severe winter weather. Spent the weekend in the Platteville, Wisconsin area where we had enough snow to cover everything creating a wonderful photograph, but once the wind came up drifts made driving more "exciting" than necessary. When I removed Sunday, my father remarked about the nature of the white and gray deposits covering my car -- they use more cinders than salt around here and he had forgotten what salt residue looked like on cars. The first time my 2007 New Beetle Convertible has seen salt or snow.

I had considered staying there until Monday, but the forecast was for rapidly deteriorating weather. Logged into their local news station and learned that the school where I taught for several years had dismissed 2.5 hours early due to the Winter Storm -- something that very rarely happens.

Kevin

[Cracker]

If you had lived in Florida in the 50's you might understand why we retired to northern Maine and never looked back. Florida bears no resemblance to its' former glory! With today's well-insulated homes and efficient heating systems, excellent winter road maintenance, full-time 4wd vehicles, and the beauty of the four seasons, what's not to like about living in snow country? With respect to Maine, we have no poisonous snakes, few, if any, poisonous insects, no cockroaches, no termites, no earthquakes of any magnitude, very rare hurricanes, very rare tornadoes - and great people (Mainers). Almost everyone in Maine, regardless of where they live, can be in wilderness within 20 minutes after they leave home, and, for most of us, it only takes 10 minutes!

[RangerJay]

Well, our little chunk of the world passed the -40 degree winter milestone last night - it was -42 this morning (no - that does not include wind chill). This is not a milestone anyone brags about - but it never goes by without a lot of comment.

So - what happens at -40 and below?

..... even the dog doesn’t want to go out
..... the car makes start-up noises that are frightening to listen to
..... tires become square
..... shocks don’t exist
..... car seats are cement
..... steering wheel doesn't want to steer
...... the only environmental sounds are cracks of protest from lake ice and trees in the bush

And - a not-so-subtle shift in perspective occurs ......

..... -30 feels positively warm
..... -20 is downright balmy
..... -10 is shirtsleeve weather
..... 0 .... well heck ..... it must be getting close to planting time

...... really ......

At this temperature and below the radio announcer likes to use the phrase “current temperature is -40 with ice crystals”. We call it “frost fog” - and it only occurs at these temperatures and below - and when it happens we don’t need a thermometer to tell us it is cold ....

For those of you who live far enough south that you have never savoured the -40 quality-of-life frost-fog experience then these pictures may just give you a taste of what you are missing ......

And yup - we still love it - a day like this in the shed making sawdust ..... followed by a slow-cooker meal that fills the house with smells and then gets topped off with an evening in front of the fireplace, martini in hand ..... well ..... it just doesn’t get any better ...... (but we did start to make our summer camping plans last night).


Jay

[cameront120]

Temperatures like that are why I never stayed in Saskatoon after graduating from University!

[utee94]

As a Texan, it is sometimes very tough for me to fathom that there is an entire other country NORTH of Minnesota. I spent a November/December in Minneapolis one year, left before Christmas, and the locals told me that I should stick around for the cold weather-- it was somewhere between 0 and 10 degrees F the day I left!

You Canadians are a brave lot, that's for sure!