Friday, August 31, 2007
Weather Adventures
I have been thinking alot about weather lately. Not that I haven't done this a good portion of my life. Weather has been very important to me with most of my daily activities based around the predicted weather. I believe I have been this way since I was very young. Even in school I would check the weather to see if I would be wasting a beautiful day studying when I could be hiking or fishing (both frequent activities while in school). Needless to say I remember quite a bit about the weather. So with these extreme temperatures this summer and many years of dull winters I have begun to wonder if there isn't something to the whole global warming.
I remember summers in SW Virginia since the time I was a kid which we did what we needed throughout the day. I grew up in an non-AC house. We didn't hole up all afternoon to get away from the heat. There may have been a few days which we had to stay next to a fan in the mid-day heat because it reached close to or a few degrees above 90 degrees. But since I worked on a farm mid-day(after school), I usually worked in the afternoons anyways. Never seemed to be all that bad.
Springtime floods! Rain, rain, and more rain. So much water. Such a good way to learn about ecology. Yes, I missed the flooding this year. Seeing the stream swell and swell until it broke bank and flooded fields and washed over bridges. Mud everywhere. Good for me .... I was able to plant early because no flooding. Bad for me because the ground water was low because no flooding.
But what I miss more than anything is the winters. The surprise snow storms that left us with a 3 feet of snow to go sledding and building snow caves, the couple inches that covered the ground to give everything a fresh look, the cold windy nights where the temps dropped below 0 degrees, the heavy snow that knocked out power and made it hard for people to get to work, and the icy nights which left 4 foot long icicles coming off the roof, and most dear to me the hiking about the snow looking for signs of wildlife. These are how I remember the winters here in my mountains. This I miss. I am afraid for the next generation growing up in SW Virginia that they will never get to experience the excitement of waking up to a white world. There is nothing like it. Last winter the deepest snow was 6 inches. Which is a great white world but it has to last!! It has to last long enough that kids can call each other and plan to meet in the evening for a night of fun. And couple times of year, I pray, we will get the deep snows that give everyone the struggle to get groceries home. (Emily and I met my dad about a 1/4 mile from home with a wagon to pick up the groceries out of his truck because he couldnt get it all the way home.) Weather makes life exciting....heat is not weather.
I remember summers in SW Virginia since the time I was a kid which we did what we needed throughout the day. I grew up in an non-AC house. We didn't hole up all afternoon to get away from the heat. There may have been a few days which we had to stay next to a fan in the mid-day heat because it reached close to or a few degrees above 90 degrees. But since I worked on a farm mid-day(after school), I usually worked in the afternoons anyways. Never seemed to be all that bad.
Springtime floods! Rain, rain, and more rain. So much water. Such a good way to learn about ecology. Yes, I missed the flooding this year. Seeing the stream swell and swell until it broke bank and flooded fields and washed over bridges. Mud everywhere. Good for me .... I was able to plant early because no flooding. Bad for me because the ground water was low because no flooding.
But what I miss more than anything is the winters. The surprise snow storms that left us with a 3 feet of snow to go sledding and building snow caves, the couple inches that covered the ground to give everything a fresh look, the cold windy nights where the temps dropped below 0 degrees, the heavy snow that knocked out power and made it hard for people to get to work, and the icy nights which left 4 foot long icicles coming off the roof, and most dear to me the hiking about the snow looking for signs of wildlife. These are how I remember the winters here in my mountains. This I miss. I am afraid for the next generation growing up in SW Virginia that they will never get to experience the excitement of waking up to a white world. There is nothing like it. Last winter the deepest snow was 6 inches. Which is a great white world but it has to last!! It has to last long enough that kids can call each other and plan to meet in the evening for a night of fun. And couple times of year, I pray, we will get the deep snows that give everyone the struggle to get groceries home. (Emily and I met my dad about a 1/4 mile from home with a wagon to pick up the groceries out of his truck because he couldnt get it all the way home.) Weather makes life exciting....heat is not weather.
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
Tuesday, August 21, 2007
Saturday, August 11, 2007
Sunday, August 05, 2007
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