“Whoever thinks of going to bed before twelve o’clock is a scoundrel.”
Winter is supposed to be cold, but I think we’re on overload. Single digits are predicted for tomorrow night and on Thursday night it will be 11˚. Today is 37˚, and it actually feels warm.
Today is a lazy day. I slept until close to eleven. I took my time reading the papers and had a couple of cups of coffee. The kitchen smelled wonderful between the grinding of the beans and the brewing of the coffee. I am watching television as I write. I admit that I actually stopped watching two science fiction novels on tubi, something I almost never do. One was about the San Andreas fault and the big quake and the total destruction of LA, and the other was about a glacier from Iceland heading toward North America and causing a new Ice Age, but I just found what may be the worst one of all. It is called Star Leaf. The description says, “Three friends fight to stay alive after finding extra-terrestrial marijuana deep in the woods and accidentally provoking the alien forces guarding it.”
Last night I went to get my mail around 11:30. The street was dark except for my outside light. No cars went down the street and no dogs barked. I could have been the main character in a science fiction movie about the world after a cataclysmic event left few survivors.
When I was in high school, I used to walk home at night after evening events. I remember the silence. I remember the circle of light under each street lamp. I could hear my footsteps.
In Ghana, in Accra, the capital, I used to walk back to the Peace Corps hostel at night. I could have taken a taxi, but I liked the walk. I remember men sitting outside on wooden chairs talking in hushed tones. They seemed always to be smoking. We greeted each other as I passed.
I love to sit outside on summer nights. I watch fireflies flit through the trees. From the small pond at the end of the street, I can hear the croaking of frogs. The Katydids add to the chorus. Summer nights are the most glorious of all, nights so filled with life.
Explore posts in the same categories: MusingsTags: 8˚, Accra, cold, darkness, freezing, nights, Peace Corps Ghana, Science fiction
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January 29, 2019 at 5:27 pm
When the train is late and I miss the last tram at night I have to walk home. Not bad but boring. It’s never really dark here and I miss to see the Milky Way.
UK Brexit debate and Doctor Who on TV today, very british.
January 29, 2019 at 7:57 pm
Birgit,
I don’t walk much anymore, but I do love those summer nights I mentioned. When I’m out there late at night, I feel like the only person in the world.
Sit by the beach at night and the sky is brilliant with stars. In Ghana there were so many I could read at night by their light.
January 29, 2019 at 6:32 pm
Hi Kat,
One of my coworkers is from Minneapolis and he said at lunch that the record low temperature there is in jeopardy tomorrow. The lowest temperature ever recorded was -23 F below zero on February 2, 1996. The lowest in the state the same day was -60 F below zero at Tower which is near International Falls Minnesota. Whatever the low temperature in my place or yours will be warm in comparison.
I used to walk very where when I was a kid in NYC. I would walk during the day or at night. Today there are places here where I wouldn’t feel safe at night.
Another clear sky with a low of 30F and a high of 48. So much for the polar vortex outbreak.
January 29, 2019 at 8:04 pm
Hi Bob,
I was horrified when I watched the weather and saw all those Midwest temperatures. Wind chills in northern Illinois could fall to negative 55 degrees while Minnesota temperatures could hit minus 30 degrees with a wind chill of negative 60. Yup, even 8˚ seems warm in comparison.
The town where I are up is safer, and I have walked at night I Boston though with other people. I don’y know about by myself. I would never walk in Accra at night.
Tonight is cold!
January 30, 2019 at 12:38 pm
It fell down to -7,6F during the night but was less cold when I drove to work, it was the amazing temperature of 3,2F 🙂 The car sounded anything but happy when I slowly started to drive up the road and the ice was so hard to scrape off that I had to stop as soon as the heat had warmed up the windows so I could scrape of the rest 🙂 🙂
We’ll get 8 more inches of snow this weekend they say so it’ll take some time until winter leaves us I’m afraid.
Is the film about he San Andrea fault fairly new? If so I have it and one really has to kill all sense of logic when seeing it 🙂 🙂
I will make sure to not even get close to any alien marijuana when I walk in the forest 🙂 🙂
I quite often walked home on summer nights when Iived in Gothenburg and it was´really nice. Back then one didn’t have to worry about being robbed or killed like that have to do now days, my old neighborhood has become the home of organized crime I’ve heard.
Have a great day!
Christer.