“In Boston serpents whistle at the cold.”
The mornings have no longer been just chilly. Of late they are downright cold. When I get the papers, I don’t stop anymore to admire the new day. I hurry inside to the warmth of the house, the smell of the coffee brewing and the taste of that first sip of coffee. My sweatshirt is necessary even in the house. I find as I get older I feel the cold more.
When I was a kid, I was oblivious to the cold. I remember sledding down our hill over and over, all day long. Clumps of snow stuck to my wool mittens. I used to shake the mittens to try to get rid of the clumps, but usually the mittens just fell off weighed down by those clumps but, not being deterred, I’d just put the mittens back on, clumps and all, and go down the hill again. By the time I went inside, my lips were sometimes blue from the cold. My fingers were numb. My feet were soaked from the snow which had fallen into my boots. My mother wouldn’t let us into the house so we had to slide down the snowy cellar stairs, go inside and take off all our wet clothes and hang them on the lines. When I was done, I’d hurry upstairs to put on my warm pajamas and slippers. The next day we’d start all over again by bundling ourselves in our now dry jackets, hats and mittens for another day on the hill.
I still have a wooden sled. I use it at Christmas time as an outside decoration. I cover it in lights and hang my old ice skates off the steering cross piece. It is a record, a picture, of my childhood winters, of sledding down the hill and skating at the swamp.
It will rain again tonight. We seem to have only a day or two in between rain storms. The last one was torrential, but I suppose I ought not to complain. Yesterday my sister said she already had 3 or 4 inches of snow and was expecting a total of at least 8. Lord, keep the rain coming!
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November 12, 2018 at 3:11 pm
Hi Kat,
Two mornings in a row I’ve come out to see frozen puddles and the wet dirt frozen into those crunchy little frost heaves. Yesterday was really cold with the windchill factoring in. I’ve pulled out my winter coat. Today was bearable with only a quilted vest on over my sweater. The sun was out both days but the clouds have rolled in now. I’ll have to shut the door to the front porch. There’s no warmth out there to let in.
My mittens still get clumps of snow. I bang them off on my pant leg, put them back on my hands and carry on.
Enjoy the evening.
November 12, 2018 at 7:43 pm
Hi Caryn,
We didn’t have a frost either of the two nights, but it is going to be so cold later in the week we may have one then. I seldom wear my winter coat. It is just a bit too bulky, a hoodie is usually enough. The only time that is a drawback is when I first get in the car on a really cold day. The dog door faces down the hall and a few days ago the wind was whipping through, and I could feel the cold from the door, but I don’t want to shut the backdoor as Henry is now going out on his own without my pushing him.
I’m not in the snow enough for my mittens to get clumps, but I were, I do as you do!
Have a great evening!!
November 12, 2018 at 4:39 pm
Well, the Lions have done it. They hire Bob Quinn and then Patricia from your Pats, thinking that they have the super secret formula and pow disaster.
They get rid of Jim Caldwell at the end of last season and a respectable 9-7 record and Clown Patricia has turned them in to a contender with the Raiders for the worst team in football. I am less than thrilled. I suggest that you plan your Thanksgiving Day with parades and turkey and skip my team. I will be watching in Hilton heard with a bunch of fans of our opponent, the Chicago Bears, so it will be a thoroughly miserable event
Snow tonight – dang
November 12, 2018 at 7:50 pm
My Dear Hedley,
I am living through the Pats getting a whoopin’ from the Titans so I can’t offer any sympathy to you. We all had dreams of a second championship with the Pats.
I am going out again this year for Thanksgiving, but I will watch the parades first and then have my turkey. Notice, no football.
November 12, 2018 at 9:32 pm
How about the cardiac Cowboys who beat the super bowl champ, Eagles last night after getting their clock cleaned on Monday night by the Titains and previously by the Lions at home. On any given Sunday any team in the NFL can beat any other team. 🙂
November 12, 2018 at 9:55 pm
That’s true! Just look at the Pats!!
November 12, 2018 at 9:42 pm
This morning was chilly in the mid 30s with some mist instead of the rain that was forecast. Tomorrow morning we should get down to the upper 20s but dry. By the weekend we should be back in the 70s. Winter is coming in fits and starts.
When I was kid in NYC I had a wooden sled just like the one in the picture. My mother bundled me up with layers including a snow suit and boots the one time my dad took me sledding before we moved to Texas. I don’t think the sled made the move down south. 🙂
November 12, 2018 at 9:55 pm
Bob,
I think we are on the path to winter. Highs are now in the 50’s instead the 60’s. We have yet to have a frost but it is coming soon. I can feel it in the air.
All of us had sleds like the one in the picture. We also put our legs in the air so they wouldn’t drag on the snow and slow us down. Snow suits were worn by the toddlers rather than by us older kids. We also layered but with sweaters underneath our winter jackets.
November 12, 2018 at 10:28 pm
I was five and had a Jewish mother (she was protecting me from wet, cold and nuclear fallout). 🙂
November 12, 2018 at 10:29 pm
Boob,
I get it!!
November 13, 2018 at 8:22 pm
“In Boston serpents whistle at the cold.”?
November 13, 2018 at 8:48 pm
“Where the Rainbow Ends”
I saw the sky descending, black and white,
Not blue, on Boston where the winters wore
The skulls to jack-o’-lanterns on the slates,
And Hunger’s skin-and-bone retrievers tore
The chickadee and shrike. The thorn tree waits
Its victim and tonight
The worms will eat the deadwood to the foot
Of Ararat: the scythers, Time and Death,
Helmed locusts, move upon the tree of breath;
The wild ingrated olive and the root
Are withered, and a winter drifts to where
The Pepperpot, ironic rainbow, spans
Charles River and its scales of scorched-earth miles
I saw my city in the Scales, the pans
Of judgment rising and descending. Piles
Of dead leaves char the air –
And I am a red arrow on this graph
Of Revelations. Every dove is sold.
The Chapel’s sharp-shinned eagle shifts its hold
On serpent-Time, the rainbow’s epitaph.
In Boston serpents whistle at the cold.
The victim climbs the altar steps and sings:
“Hosannah to the lion, lamb, and beast
Who fans the furnace-face of IS with wings:
I breathe the ether of my marriage feast.”
At the high altar, gold
And a fair cloth. I kneel and the wings beat
My cheek. What can the dove of Jesus give
You now but wisdom, exile? Stand and live,
The dove has brought an olive branch to eat.
November 14, 2018 at 7:37 am
New to me. Immediately brings up a comparison to Lewis’s Narnia though I’m sure they are much different..
Of course snakes in the bible are serpents. Little bit of funny in the Bible that Eve is commonly blamed for Adams fall from grace (duped by his “wife”). But it took the very best (Satan as the serpent) to seduce Eve. And there you go!
November 14, 2018 at 12:46 pm
Spaceman,
The poet is Robert Lowell who grew up in Boston. Many of his works were frequently set in Boston and New England.
November 14, 2018 at 4:36 pm
Relationship to Lowell college?
November 14, 2018 at 5:51 pm
Spaceman,
Not that I can find.