Hello Southern Winter

It feels like I have to relearn how to survive winter every year. In Arkansas (and Texas before that) we get cold weather for a relatively short period every year - Late November/December through March, maybe, and then it is spring and even if it is sometimes cold, the sun is out most of the time - that by this time of it year it has been almost nine months since I was truly cold. That means I have had almost enough time to have had a baby since I last had to layer on a daily basis.

Cold enough for the hat, mostly

Now I have to rediscover scarves - they aren't just for occasional decoration, they actually keep my neck warm! - and remember to wear slippers and socks around the house. (And let me tell you, after almost nine months of wearing Chaccos and no socks, my feet are not thrilled to be back in shoes for anything other than running and tennis.) I have to remember where we keep the thermostat so that everyone is mostly happy, and the heater isn't running all the time. Malcolm demands footie pajamas and a space heater in his room at night. I will probably start drinking a lot more tea. When running, I have to remember to check the weather conditions before I go out, to make sure I won't catch hypothermia, instead of to decide how much water to take for a three mile run. There is always a sort of calculation going on when it is cold - is it actually cold enough for the hat? Will it warm up so much that I will be sweating as soon as I am moving, or is it really windy, so that no matter how much I work, I will always be cold? The summer is just hot. After about 70, you just know you are going to be sweating, and while you might check the humidity, there isn't anything you can do to make it better, except stay inside on a treadmill. *shudder*

I can hear all my northern friends laughing and rolling their eyes at me, and I suppose it is their turn. After all, I do the same every summer when they start moaning about how hot it is. And don't get me wrong - I don't dislike this weather, I just have to become reacquainted with it. Now, I think I need a cup of tea!

Uh, about that Spring...

After a week of nice spring weather, winter reasserted itself. Sunday started cold and gray and rainy, and got colder as the day went on. By dinnertime, the rain had turned to freezing rain and sleet. All that white stuff is accumulated sleet, not snow.

The ice coats everything it touches, and is much, much harder to get off than snow, especially from your windshield and the roads. The main streets in town were treated, but all the side roads, including ours, were left alone. In front of our house, the street looks like an ice rink.

These poor miniature daffodils were just starting to bloom when the storm hit. Luckily for me, they were only the first little clump - the majority have yet to bloom. I am hopeful that the rest survived to bloom once it warms up.

Malcolm is not a fan of the ice (or snow, for that matter). His expression mirrors Benjamin's feeling on the matter as well, since he has had classes canceled 4 times now for bad weather. Lets just hope this is the last of winter and that we can get back to our regularly scheduled spring!

Another icy day

Malcolm and I are sharing a slice of lemon sour cream pound cake, covered in Nutella, because that is the kind of day it is. Icy, rainy, and generally unpleasant; a good day for pound cake and sitting on the couch.

 

Now that I have started running regularly though, I feel a little twitchy at the thought of sitting around all day. Thank goodness the gym is open. I will have to go later and get in some time on a treadmill, just to feel like I have moved around (and burned off some of that Nutella).

Until then, I'm going to go cut another slice.

Edited: I can't believe this is another recipe I haven't shared yet. It is the Cooking Light Sour Cream Pound Cake from the April 2002 magazine. It is my go-to recipe for pot lucks. Try it. You will thank me.

Rain!

Huzzah! We had rain yesterday, real, honest-to-goodness rain! The street gutters were overflowing in small rivers at lunch time, and again when I got home in the afternoon. The trees and bushes in the yard no longer look sad and dry and bedraggled, and when I got up this morning, the ground was still wet! It wasn't enough to get the state out of a drought or extreme fire danger, but it was enough that I don't have to worry about watering for a few days. Ahh...

Just trying to stay cool

So, it is hot here in Arkansas. Yup. We've been right around 100 degrees for most of the last two weeks. At some point, we were hotter than Phoenix. Benjamin has decided not to let the heat stop him, since the world is warming and it will likely be this way every summer from now on, and played tennis 4 of 5 days this week (and then wondered why he was so drained, and ate 1/4 of a large watermelon in one sitting). If I wasn't quite so pregnant, I might be doing the same, but as it is, I can barely stand to walk the dog around our hill at 6 in the morning when it is only 75.

To go along with the heat issues, one of our city's wells has failed, and while there is plenty of water for home use and fire fighting, the water company has put in place a water conservation plan until a new well comes online. This means we aren't supposed to water our lawns or use irrigation systems at all. Now, we never water our lawn, but we do water all the bushes in the yard, not to mention the vegetable garden. I was told, via email, that I could water the vegetables and not be cited for non-compliance as long as nobody complained, but when I went to fill a watering can last night, the outdoor water had been turned off. I think we can turn it back on, as long as it isn't locked, but I'm not sure why the company felt the need to turn off the water. I assume they turned everyone's water off, maybe to drive home the message, but it seems a bit much.

I am seriously considering planting cactus and other desert plants that don't need any water. Stupid drought.

Book Review: The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Based on my short perusal of the other reviews on Goodreads, this is one book that you will either really like or really dislike - not too many in-the-middles. I would give it 4.5 stars, if able. I doubt I will stop thinking about it for a while, and I want to read it again, soon, to catch things I missed, to revel in the story without the mystery.

It is not an action-filled magical romp; there is no heart-pounding suspense. It is a story that takes time to unfold, and for much of the book you will be slightly confused about what just happened, or why it was important. The dates at the beginning of each chapter are very important to following the flow.

I do think that some of the dislike from other readers comes from disappointment that they got a different book that they expected from the descriptions. Some of the marketing around the book makes this sound like it will be a circus-centered Harry Potter or a Victorian Lev Grossman-style post-modern take on the magical adventure, with some Romeo and Juliet action as well. It is not. The magical contest that sets events in motion is never clearly defined, for the reader or the two main participants. It is not explosions and obvious displays of power. That vagueness continues through much of the book, clouded in a dream-like state and mystery. If you are expecting magical duels of the Harry Potter sort, you will need to look elsewhere. It is not that sort of book.

However, if you are interested in dreams, and the power of stories, and the way both unfold and change with the telling, you may like this. It is also about obsession and love, and friendship, and, of course, the circus.

Not for everyone, I do realize, and I don't know if I would actively push it on any of my friends - in part because I wouldn't want to tarnish it for myself if they didn't like it - but I do recommend you at least give it a try.

All in all, I am very happy that I won a copy of this in a Twitter contest, so I don't have to wait for it at the library, and I have it around to read again, when I get a chance.

View all my reviews


In other news, Fall seem to finally be making an appearance here in Arkansas. On Monday, the temperature hovered near 90; yesterday it never got to 60, and it rained! After my trip to Seattle, where it felt just like Fall should (well, to me anyway), I was rather sad to have to return to the extended summer that had captured Arkansas, so I am pretty darn happy about this turn. 

Hail No!

Last night, while we were minding our own business, watching hockey, our house was suddenly and violently assaulted. By hail the size of mutant Concord grapes.

Two of the perpetrators, melting under questioning.

It was loud, and somewhat unsettling. My first thought was for the new sprouts of lettuce, peas and broccoli in our garden; Benjamin's were for our roof. Miikka did not take kindly to the invasion, and tried to rout the instigators with growls and barks. It didn't work, so he tried an all-out assault on the backyard (after the worst of the hail was over - didn't want him getting a concussion or something). That didn't work either and he spent the rest of the evening growling out the window or barking around the yard, until we finally corralled him in the kitchen for an early bedtime, with comforting cookie.

The enemy lies spent, taking only a few victims.

When we lived in Texas, we always heard stories of hail the size of golf balls, or bigger, but we never actually experienced any this big.  The year we went back to Austin for Benjamin's graduation ceremony, there was a storm the day before we arrived that produced baseball sized hail, but we only saw it on the news. I have a friend who grew up in the Dallas area, and every time there was a threat of hail in Austin she would run out and throw a blanket over her car, to dull the impact and prevent dents. Now I know why!

Now that is hail.

The other Texas feature of hail that always made us laugh was the way its name sounds when pronounced with a strong Texas accent: rather more like hell than hay-l.  There was an ad on TV from a car detailing shop that always advertised a hail damage discount, but the way the guy said it, the services seemed straight out of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. "We'll fix your hell damage for you." Anyway, despite Miikka's extreme distaste of the hail and its invasion of his yard, we don't seem to have any damage. The garden (what I could see of it in the dark this morning at 5 AM) seemed fine. I don't know about the roof, but then, I always care more about food than I do about housing.

February snow storm

Sorry it has taken a couple of days to get back to snow storm reporting - it is just that the weather has been so nice the last couple of days, idyllic really, that I wasn't ready to plunge back into snow. And there was quite a bit of it, as you can see. All told, probably 5 or 6 inches on our deck.

It snowed all day Wednesday, from about 7 AM to at least 7 PM.  Thursday, although cold, was clear and lovely.

As you can see, only one vehicle made the trip up (or down, not entirely sure which) our street by Thursday morning. Under all that snow was a sheet of ice that made walking a bit tricky, until the sun really got the pavement warmed up.

The city actually plowed the big hill leading up to our street, and once the sun got high enough, the roads melted quickly. That is the nice thing about living farther south - the sun is pretty strong, even in February.  This expanse of whiteness was already melting about an hour later, and large patches of road were visible.

Despite being buried up to his chest in the deep parts, Miikka loved the snow. He hopped around like an arctic fox and walked with his nose plowing through the snow. No need for a sweater on this one.

I am pretty sure that we won't be having any more winter weather - more cold days, since this 65 degree perfection can't be expected to last forever (not that I would mind if it did), but no more snow. It is getting too close to spring for that now. At least, I hope so. I like winter, and I was OK with having it for 4 months in New York, but people here aren't prepared for it, and besides, it is almost spring.

And Miikka is ready to start digging holes in the dirt - doesn't freeze the snout that way.

We're not in Phoenix, so cut it out!

While at the gym this morning, I caught the following factoids on the morning news: 

• The latest that Little Rock has had a 90+ degree day was October 23, in 1989
• The most days of 90+ weather was 115, which occurred in 1998
• This year, so far, we have had 110 of 90+ weather, and it is sure to be 111 after today

Blech. C'mon autumn!

Heat rant #2

Remember what I said last week about how it was too hot here? Well, it seems I was a little premature in my ranting, because this week is even hotter. My dad sent this screen capture along to let us know that we won the heat derby yesterday:

Do you see that? We were hotter than Phoenix and Sedona. Maybe not today, since Phoenix is supposed to be around 110, and we are only supposed to be around 105, but that wouldn't make me sad.  The weather report on the radio said that we got up to 107 for a little bit, which made it the hottest day in 10 years. Lucky us.

I'd stop whining about the weather and talk about something else, if there was anything else going on here. Hmm, I guess I still have pictures from our trip to D.C. to post. Maybe tomorrow, if I haven't melted yet.

Snow Day Part 2

We don't have one of these in Maumelle.

So, we are stuck at home for a second day. I am not going to complain too much, because I am always happy to not go to work, but I do have one observation...if the cities around here had more experience clearing roads, nothing would have to be shut down. I know this is the same criticism leveled at D.C. during their current snowpocalypse, and it is completely true.

Maumelle has a snow plow - I saw it working yesterday. But it only did the major roads, and those only in the morning. It was slushy all day, up until the late evening, so the roads could have been cleared, or at least salted or sanded. The only reason no-one can get around is that the roads are covered in frozen slush. This would never have happened in Brockport.

We aren't supposed to get above freezing until tomorrow, and it is supposed to snow again on Thursday. This is turning into an interesting winter.

Scenes from a Snow Day

5:15 AM, Back deck

We are having another snow day today. That is two in less than a month! It is really coming down now, with at least four or five inches on the deck.

11 AM, view out our front door.

I have already taken the dog for a very slushy walk (it was sleeting at the time, not snowing), and baked a batch of chocolate chip cookies.

Miikka digging in the snow, of course.

Benjamin is home too, and we are about to have grilled cheese sandwiches for lunch. Is there a better snow day lunch?

Back deck at 11 AM.

What is with this weather? or I feel vindicated!

Our weather this week: Sunday - mid 70s, Monday - 80, Tuesday - mid 70s, Wednesday - 40, Thursday - 33. Tonight - chance of sleet and freezing rain, temps in the 20s. Now, I am OK with 80 (although I could do without the 80% humidity that went with it), and I am OK with 33, but I would prefer them to be separated by a month, or at least a couple of weeks. It is impossible to know how to dress, which coat to wear. We used to have the same problem in Austin, but not in New York or Washington. Huh.

In related news, researchers at Harvard have concluded that a hike in temperatures can cause headaches. Check out the NPR story about this here. Aha! And it has been known for a while that barometric changes can cause migraines. So, with these two pieces of information, I feel vindicated in my beliefs that it is totally not my fault that I have headaches when the weather changes and when it is hot (either one of which is usually happening here in Arkansas).

Icepocalypse!

We are at the beginning of what may turn out to be Icepocalypse 2008. I am borrowing/adapting that phrase from a blogger in Seattle. People here at work are in full panic mode because we have an icy blast bearing down us that may be carrying freezing rain. Oh boy. It is the same in Seattle this week. And in the Northeast. Personally, I don't really care - there is nothing I can do to change the weather - but people at work are worried. They keep assuming that I am not accustomed to bad driving and ice - but I am - I saw it in Texas. The thing is, everyone says that "We are just not used to it here" and then in the next breath, "This happens every year." Well, if it happens every year, maybe they ought to get better prepared! Sigh. Maybe the Governor will close the government early today. That would be nice. And tomorrow. I could use the time to clean the house in preparation for my parents' visit next week...And to bake cookies...