Blustery Days

We had absolutely no snow and barely a day where we had to wear coats clear through November. Then December arrived and it's been nothing but cold ever since. Monday we had snow in the morning, our first, albeit a barely-there kind of snow that didn't last long. then, today, it snowed again. This time a tiny bit more substantial. Enough to create a terrible 10-car pile-up at the junction of 93 and 128, the worst intersection in the whole area so I read once.

Sunday, I had to go to the funeral for a friend's mother (the seventh such funeral I've been to in the past couple of years). I was not needing a coat that day, but I thought to myself I had better stop by the store and get a coat (my one for the past several years had seen better days and had been mended so many times it was beyond hope anymore). Good thing. Monday morning was frigid and I was quite thankful for the cozy down jacket I picked up for 50% off!

Every single day since has been breath-takingly cold. The kids don't go out for recess for long before they are running back inside with cherry-red noses and red-delicious cheeks. They laugh it off, though. For some reason, the cold makes them cheerful. Of course there are a lot more runny noses, too. Have to watch out for those!

Looking at these 7- and 5-day forcasts for the week ahead, the outlook doesn't look too bad until you realize that the times I will be outside will be during the morning lows and the evening an hour or more after the sun is down and it is much colder again. Many of our students ride the train and/or bus to school and have to stand outside waiting for those vehicles a couple of times during the cold of the morning. I do not envy them.

Still, I love the winter. Some of my most glorious memories are of times up in Maine in the frigid cold glorying in the beauty of it all. Oh, to have had a digital camera back then! I remember nights going out to the middle of a frozen lake with a few friends, lying down on our backs and looking at the stars, marveling at the millions of pinpoints of light...identifying the constellations, nodding to many as if they were old friends. I remember another amazing night snowmobiling with two friends to the top of a tree-and snow-laden mountain to find ourselves in a small clearing that had only pitch-black sky above studded with diamonds shining brilliantly. Then the moon rose and shone a spotlight down on us...took my breath away...

Photos from the local TV station websites and the Rangeley Lakes website.