Friday, January 16, 2009
Dead Of Winter
Invigoration versus enervation.
The bright morning sunlight streams through my windows. But as soon as I snap open the translucent plastic blinds, a sheet of frost obscures the outside view. It’s –10 degrees Fahrenheit (-23 Celsius) beyond the protective pane.
Another damn winter in Plattsburgh, NY. Venture outside: the life-giving sun energizes but that vampire winter sucks away all that energy, despite layers of warm clothing. Add some flowing air and the wind chill kicks in, biting any exposed skin. When you walk inside a warm shelter, the cold clings to you like Oort cloud vapor.
Nothing motivates me more than an arctic blast.
This winter has been a real struggle for me. It snowed in October and since then more storms have been rolling through, adding to the mess. Throw in cold snaps (like the one for the last couple of days) with temps plunging down to –20 F (-28 C) or more at night (before the wind chill factor) and you’ll know why I haven’t been posting that much lately.
Make like a snowbird and fly down to Florida for a break? On my budget? Sure.
Plattsburgh by itself is difficult. A Plattsburgh winter is impossible.
But I’ll try to slog on, shorter posts.
4 comments:
Ray,
Kind of off-subject but on-topic: Are there more or less UFO sightings when the temperature dips below freezing? I'm wondering if the environmental conditions are keeping the aliens away or beckoning them on.
Doug:
During an arctic blast skywatchers have to be careful. The only UFO you will see during a deep freeze is an Unliving Frozen Observer.
Seriously, I don't think any ET with the technology to travel here gives a rat's ass about how cold it is. I would assume personal environmental control would be easy for such a visitor -- especially if he could phase in and out from our dimension.
But this does lead to another question: what are peak times for UFO sightings? I would expect that warmer weather would mean more people outside to notice things. But regarding nighttime sightings, warmer weather means shorter periods of darkness, less opportunity to spot an unusual light.
Of course, the main factor is the aliens putting on a show whenever they feel like it.
Actually, I'm uncomfortable with the word UFO when it means ET craft. I don't think there's One Answer to all the sightings such as aliens. It could be something else. I prefer the term "unknowns" to describe the really puzzling cases. Of course, the Unidentified in UFO is supposed to mean an object of unknown origin, but too many people now associate it with alien spaceships.
Ray
I don't know if cold weather is condusive to more sightings, but it sure has you waxing poetic.
I used to live in Wisconsin, where the snow sometimes starts in September, and eventually thaws out in May--which makes tracking down fly balls rather tricky in the spring; one minute you're yelling "I got it," the next you're slipping ass over skull on a patch of ice. So I certainly sympathize with you on the cold days.
Of course, here in DC we've had a pretty mild winter. So I've become comfortable and smug. in short, I don't envy you right now.
X. Dell:
ThanX for the warning. Wisconsin is added to my list of Places To Avoid When I Move.
I've had enough of Ice Planet Hoth.
Ray
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