“Even in winter an isolated patch of snow has a special quality.”
Winter is upon us, in full force. It is 33°. The cloudless sky is a classic Crayola blue. The sun is bright. The air is mostly still though every now and then a small branch moves, slightly. The dogs ran out and quickly ran back inside. It is, of course, their nap time.
My dance card is full for the rest of the week. I have a uke concert today and one each the next two days. I missed a concert yesterday as I was nursing the end of a cold. The cold surprised me. It has been years since my last one. This cold had it all: cough, raspy voice and sniffling nose.
When I was a kid, I always hoped for snow at Christmas, but we seldom got any. The streets and lawns were clear and looked like any other time of year. I wanted Christmas to be special. I wanted Santa to have a snowy runway.
On Christmas Eve, we never had a big dinner. We wouldn’t have eaten it anyway. We were too excited though we did manage to eat a few Christmas cookies, as many as my mother would allow. We watched TV. Santa from New Hampshire was packing up the sleigh and saying goodbye. We wanted to go to bed early. We’re talking six or seven. We wanted to sleep the night away. We wanted Christmas morning. My mother said no.
My first Christmas away from home was way away. I was in Ghana. Christmas in West Africa is during the harmattan when a dry, dusty wind blows in from the Sahara. The air is hazy, hot, desert like. The sun is shrouded by sand. My lips chapped from the dryness. My heels cracked. Every surface in my house was covered with a layer of dust. Cleaning was futile. I just had to learn to live with the dust, no rain and all that sand, but there were saving graces. The mosquitos disappeared. Laundry dried in an instant. My cold shower was refreshing, cooling, but the most welcomed parts of the harmattan were the nights and early mornings. They were cold, down as much as thirty and forty degrees from the daytime. My students layered. I nestled under a wool blanket. I loved feeling cold. It was unexpected, an anomaly.
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December 14, 2023 at 6:06 pm
Hi Kat,
Today was partly cloudy with a high of 63°. Tomorrow the weather prognosticators are forecasting a soaking rain through the weekend.
Here in North Texas we rarely have a white Christmas. The last time was in 2009. Our TV weatherman said that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, says there must be at least one inch of snow on the ground to count it as a white Christmas. He told his children to enjoy it in 2009 because it doesn’t happen very often.
Most people in this country are geography disabled. Many years ago, I took my son to a Texas Rangers Baseball game. We were sitting in front of a woman who was telling her companion that these were her season tickets and that she never missed a home game. They were playing the Toronto Bluejays. She remarked to her companion, “Why did they play both the Canadian and American National anthems?” I couldn’t take any more of her ignorance and replied, “Because madam, Toronto is located in Canada”. She replied, “No you are wrong it’s in New York”. Of course she probably thinks that Cape Cod is in England. 🙂 In reality we are located on the same latitude as the Sahara desert. Maybe that’s why we rarely have a white Christmas.
December 14, 2023 at 11:07 pm
Hi Bob,
It was cold all day today. It was sunny but the sun was a mere decoration!
Last winter we had only about 2 or 3 inches of snow the whole season. None is predicted yet. My sister in Colorado has had twos now storms, each over 4 or 5 inches. She can keep it! As pretty as it is, it is a pain in the long run.
When they stopped teaching geography as a separate class, kids became adults with no idea of what constitutes our world. They barely know the US and the where the states are in relation to each other. I remember having to learn all the state capitals. I also remember my geography books with pictures from all over the world. They piqued my interest and made me want to travel. I think it is time to bring back geography!!
December 14, 2023 at 11:28 pm
Yes, also bring back civics. I’m amazed how little our kids are learning about our democracy and how it works. Ignorance of how our government operates and making compromises just encourages people to vote for an autocratic government. Many of the young folks don’t know that Hitler was elected as Chancellor of Germany in the 1930s. Should Trump be elected again, God forbid, our democratic republic will come to a screeching halt. He publicly says that he will be a dictator for the first day, but that’s a lie, he will become a dictator for life. He wants retribution and genocide for his perceived enemies.
December 16, 2023 at 1:43 am
I agree about civics. It used to be a required subject back in the day. The good change the school where I worked did was to make US History a two year requirement. That way kids got background on the development of this country, its wars and its peace. Before this, the one year course never made it to the end of WWII. I agree about TRump.