Sunday, 12/22/2024:
Sunrise was at 7:14 a.m., the skies were clear, and the air temperature was 1° with a wind chill that made it feel like 11 below. The sunset will occur at 4:15.
Emma spent the night- sister sleepover- and we went out before Sun up, but it was too cold to stick around for Sunrise, so we scrambled back in and had coffee in the office. We went back out at 10:00, but it was still too cold, and 5 minutes of horseplay later, we were back inside.
Observation of the day: Sometimes, the beauty and wonder of Nature’s creations can be just as well appreciated through a window every bit as much as when you are outside being cloaked in her shroud of intemperance.
Monday, 12/23/2024:
Sunrise was at 7:16 a.m., the skies were clear, and the air temperature was 3° with a wind chill that made it feel like two below. The sunset will occur at 4:15.
Emma spent the night again last night; morning routines don’t change with her here, but they are certainly more lively. On a normal day, Alice and the cats eat breakfast together, but when Emma is here, I feed the cats in the kitchen and the canines in the office. As the day progressed, temperatures climbing to the low 20s by the afternoon, I gave the girls some “yard time” in their play area where they were tied to 30 ft long plastic coated Steel cables under the now naked Bruce (the Magnificent maple tree that towers over the homemade veranda). The three of us, under the watchful eye of Bruce, spent a good hour out there as I watched the girls do what puppy sisters do, which is to say I watched 200 lb wild bears standing up on two legs pounding into each other until they completely drained all of that built up energy from having been relegated to indoor play over the two days prior.
Observation of the day: It’s fascinating that even brief moments of warmth from the Sun, independent of the air temperature, seem to animate the body and recharge the spiritual batteries; the dogs were as excited as I was, and this suggests every other form of life is as well.
Tuesday, 12/24/2024:
Sunrise was at 7:15 a.m., it was snowing, and the air temperature was 22° with a light breeze that made it feel like 20°. The sunset will occur at 4:16.
As the Sun was breaching the horizon, big snowflakes started falling and quickly covered the streets. It stopped snowing sometime around 9:00 a.m. But Mother Nature’s Fresh coat of white paint was just enough to get Alice and Emma rolling in it, eating it, and dive-bombing each other on top of it. The skies were clear by sunset, but the air temperatures allowed the snow to survive the day and give the girls endless Joy. Watching them reminded me of the Endless Joy snow gave me as a child, and it warmed my heart to dwell, briefly and vicariously, in their enthusiasm.
Observation of the day: While it might be necessary to put your childish ways behind you as you age, no better life can be lived than the one that sneaks pieces of it into adulthood from time to time.
Wednesday, 12/25/2024:
Sunrise was at 7:16 a.m., the skies were clear, and the air temperature was 12° with no wind. The sunset will occur at 4:16.
Alice and I were on the porch 2 hours before Sunrise. Being Christmas morning, it wasn’t the cold air that slapped us in the face when we opened the front door; it was the complete silence. No one was on the road, no distant highway was humming, and the only thing we could hear was the air exhaust system on the hospital’s roof three blocks to the north. While the expression “deafening silence” might be a bit long in the tooth, it nonetheless perfectly describes what shared our space with us, this morning over coffee. When coffee was done I left Alice behind and did breakfast and presents over at Emma’s house, bringing Emma with me for another sleepover while her humans did their Christmas traveling for Christmas dinner at the in-laws. With the band back together for a reunion tour, there was fun and frivolity under Bruce out on the veranda to spend the remainder of the day doing what we always do: Livin’, lovin’, thrillin’, and chillin’.
Observation of the day: Life in the fast lane, especially during the holiday season, is vastly overrated; the simplest of Hermit pleasures make for the warmest and most fulfilling life.
Thursday, 12/26/2024:
Sunrise was at 7:16 a.m., the skies were clear, the air was still, and the air temperature was 13° . The sunset will occur at 4:17.
Me and the girls (Emma stayed the night again) were on the porch before 6:00, and sadly, the icy-aired silence had been replaced once more with the hums of highways filled with people hastily moving past the holiday. Worthy of note is how much less cold it feels the longer you spend time outdoors hangin’ out with Mother Nature on her terms. While it might have been a shock to the system when the first frost fell in October, the formation of ice crystals on the mustache and beard while talking through plans for the day with the girls now feels exactly like the right way to start the day.
Observation of the day: The longer you let Nature’s Winter do all the talking, the easier it becomes to recognize the relative insignificance of your role in her work.
Friday, 12/27/2024:
Sunrise was at 7:16 a.m., the skies were clear, the temperature was 12°, and the air was still. The sunset will occur at 4:18.
Temperatures did not make it into the twenties until afternoon, so I took advantage of the opportunity to do a little housework, squeeze in the midday nap, and then head to the park with Alice mid-afternoon. Compared to temperatures earlier in the week, it was a veritable heat wave; the Sun was shining, the skies were mostly clear, and the park was relatively empty, which gave us plenty of time to do a couple of laps around and let Alice flush out the sparrows hiding in the bushes. We had not been to the park for quite a while, but she picked up where she had left off the last time we were there and had the time of her life. We sat quietly in awe for a long while, watching the Sun slowly make its way down to the horizon and the picture I took as I watched her, mesmerized until the sun was almost down.
Observation of the day: You know you are doing it right when nobody wants to call it a day and go home.
Saturday, 12/28/2024:
Sunrise was at 7:17 a.m., the skies were cloudy, and the air temperature was 26° with no wind. The sunset will occur at 4:19.
Me and Alice had big plans to spend some more time at the park, making the mistake of believing the weather man about the forecast suggesting there would be no rain until Sunday. He lied. He had the forecasted temperatures right, though, promising a high around 40°- quite a divergence from the Sub-Zero temperatures at the beginning of this week. Winter has made it abundantly clear that flexibility is imperative for survival, and if she’s taught us nothing else about herself during this week of class, learning how to put our arms around her and pull her in close so we can understand and love her for all she provides to the subsequent seasons is going to require a great deal of humility if we want to pass this class.
Observation of the day: Dark gray skies and air warm enough to melt the snow cover might feel dreary and depressing, but the worms and the birds who winter over would strongly disagree.
Weekly PostScript:
As the first week of this journal unfolded I determined to increase the amount of time we are outdoors during daylight hours; while it is true that the Sun was only up for approximately 9 hours each of the days this first week, me and the girls were outside nearly a third of that time across the span of the day (Sub-Zero wind chills notwithstanding). I think it would be cheatinng to include pre-dawn and post-sunset time spent on the front porch, and I will keep track of this time as the season progresses- nature is, after all, doing her thing every bit as much in the daylight as she is after dark.
