Monday, March 1, 2010

It's what now?

I heard on the radio that today is the start of Meteorological Spring. Oh. Right. Sure. Of course.

Last Wednesday, when I walked out of my mother's house to head to Iowa City, the temperature was -35 with the wind chill. I had to stop and get gas because I knew a quarter tank of gas would not get me from Walker to Iowa City. There was no place to park the car so it blocked the wind. I wore the wrong coat. I did not wear my big fluffy down-filled Iowa Hawkeyes Starter jacket. I wore my reasonably warm Land's End coat. The wind would gust and go right down the neck. By the time the car was filled, I couldn't feel the tips of my fingers. Thank god Jeeps have among the best heaters in vehicles. I just cranked it all the way up and I was toasty warm in 10 minutes.

It was cold, even for me. This is the gravel road heading away from the farm.

Doesn't it even look cold? The wind was blowing right to left and there was minor drifting.

Because of my heritage, "cold" is a relative term. I'm not cold until the air temperature gets to below 10 degrees. Now that can be with or without a wind, but on clear winter days like this, if you can be out of that wind, you'll find the sunshine is very pleasant unless the air temperature, as it was, is near or below zero. It's just cold. Period.

We've had the third snowiest February on record, nearly 24 inches, with the total accumulation this year at nearly 60 inches. That's 5 feet. That's a lot of snow. I know some of my friends on the east coast will just laugh as they have shoveled feet of snow from different storms. Anyway one looks at it, that's a lot of accumulated snow.

There's melting now. I shoveled the driveway apron so Pam could get her car into the drive and a lot of that has melted. I'm looking for a newspaper that supposedly came but was probably buried. It's 2 weeks old but I kind of feel like I am on a treasure hunt. Wonder were it wound up that I haven't seen it yet?

So, to hear that we have started spring by another calculation made me chuckle. It's to be in the 40's this weekend here. I'm itching to start seeds indoors. I used to do that. Sprouting plants in the house is definately an indication of spring whether the weatherman or Mother Nature agree.

Beverage: Christmas Morning tea

Deb

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