How cold is it Johnny?

[M. R. Bober]

Sunny Lancaster 08:00 16 Jan 09 >>>16F

Mitchell Bober
Sunny Lancaster (where it is warmer than Sunny Annapolis), VA

[John Danicic]

Only one person is left alive that can call me "Johnny"

We had 24 below in the backyard this morning. It is moving east.

Sail on

John

John Danicic
CD36 Mariah #124
Lake Superior

[Ray Garcia]

A numbing 11 on the platform this morning waiting for the Long Island Railroad into Manhattan.

[barfwinkle]

Thankfully the cloud cover hung around over night and we were no where near our predicted 10 degrees, but tonight however may well be a different stroy!

Morning temp here was 26.

[Oswego John]

"Where the snowflakes fall thickest, there's nothing can freeze."

The cold weather and heavy snows that some places are having provide an almost perfect way for me to segue into my next thought.

Life, for me anyway, seems to have an ability to average out anything that nature can throw at us. In my eighty years on this face of the earth, I've seen countless sunrises balanced by as many sunsets. The end days of autumn, year in and year out, have been the precursor of long, winter days. However, those long, cold days of winter, in time, ease and become the harbinger of springtime and the pleasant days of summer. It never seems to fail. I have made many friendships in my life and I have also visited many of my late friends graves, only to make other new friends again. The supply seems inexhaustible.

I suppose that this post is, more or less, geared for those of us who are getting along in years. There comes in time the realization that age is just a number, a meaningless number. I feel that attitude and passion for life is a much more meaningful way to evaluate life's true worth. As long as a person has his health and a reasonable use of his faculties, he is still young at heart.

There is a favorite poem of mine that illustrates some of what I am trying to convey to you. After a time, we feel we are no longer tired, bumbling old men or old geezers. After all, we are boys. Who dares to differ?

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Boys
By Oliver Wendell Holmes
1859



HAS there any old fellow got mixed with the boys?
If there has, take him out, without making a noise.
Hang the Almanac's cheat and the Catalogue's spite!
Old Time is a liar! We're twenty to-night!

We're twenty! We're twenty! Who says we are more?
He's tipsy,-- young jackanapes!-- show him the door!
"Gray temples at twenty?"-- Yes ! white if we please;
Where the snow-flakes fall thickest there's nothing can freeze!

Was it snowing I spoke of? Excuse the mistake!
Look close,-- you will see not a sign of a flake!
We want some new garlands for those we have shed,--
And these are white roses in place of the red.

We've a trick, we young fellows, you may have been told,
Of talking (in public) as if we were old:--
That boy we call "Doctor," and this we call "Judge;"
It's a neat little fiction,-- of course it's all fudge.

That fellow's the "Speaker,"-- the one on the right;
"Mr. Mayor," my young one, how are you to-night?
That's our "Member of Congress," we say when we chaff;
There's the "Reverend" What's his name?-- don't make me laugh.

That boy with the grave mathematical look
Made believe he had written a wonderful book,
And the ROYAL SOCIETY thought it was true!
So they chose him right in; a good joke it was, too!

There's a boy, we pretend, with a three-decker brain,
That could harness a team with a logical chain;
When he spoke for our manhood in syllabled fire,
We called him "The Justice," but now he's "The Squire."

And there's a nice youngster of excellent pith,--
Fate tried to conceal him by naming him Smith;
But he shouted a song for the brave and the free,
Just read on his medal, "My country," "of thee!"

You hear that boy laughing?-- You think he's all fun;
But the angels laugh, too, at the good he has done;
The children laugh loud as they troop to his call,
And the poor man that knows him laughs loudest of all!

Yes, we're boys, --always playing with tongue or with pen,--
And I sometimes have asked,-- Shall we ever be men?
Shall we always be youthful, and laughing, and gay,
Till the last dear companion drops smiling away?

Then here's to our boyhood, its gold and its gray!
The stars of its winter, the dews of its May!
And when we have done with our life-lasting toys,
Dear Father, take care of thy children, THE BOYS!

[jerryaxler]

The poem summed up my feelings more eloquently than the phrase I have been using to express my attitude as I get older.
" I grow older, but I refuse to grow up."

[Warren Kaplan]

6:30AM at my house on the South Shore of Long Island and the temperature outside is a whopping 6 degrees!!

I live on the water and I'm happy to say I installed my ice eater on my floating dock the other day when the temp was in the downright balmy 20s and the wind was only blowing 15-20 out of the frigid NW! Ugh!

The thing seems to be working and there is a nice circle of clear water around my float and pilings and its holding the crunch hungry relentless ice at bay for now.

[winthrop fisher]

-3 here in kansas city the high of 25...winthrop

[Ron M.]

At the elbow of the Cape: 6:00 am. 8 degrees F.
Thanks O.J.
Costa Rica..............here I come
________
MONTANA MEDICAL MARIJUANA

[jerryaxler]

Philly suburbs 1 degree. Why did I ever decide to live here?

[John Danicic]

"Where the snowflakes fall thickest, there's nothing can freeze."

I suppose that this post is, more or less, geared for those of us who are getting along in years. There comes in time the realization that age is just a number, a meaningless number. I feel that attitude and passion for life is a much more meaningful way to evaluate life's true worth. As long as a person has his health and a reasonable use of his faculties, he is still young at heart.

Oswego John:

A great bunch of thought from a wise young boy. You warmed my heart on this cold cold day. I'm with you. Let's go out and play.

Sail on

John Danicic
CD36 Mariah #124
Lake Superior

[Mark Yashinsky]

no one from Florida or the West Coast made a comment about how great the sailing is.

[mgphl52]

Hi Mark,

I'm so sorry! I had such a nice sail on Saturday afternoon (once I could get KAYLA to float - damn north winds drain our bayou) that I forgot to post/brag about the conditions. There were a couple of others out sailing as well on Choctawhatchee Bay, but I was the only Cape Dory I could spot.

-michael & Toni

[mahalocd36]

Philly suburbs 1 degree. Why did I ever decide to live here?

I was thinking the same thing here in Maine....but, there's a saying in Maine...something like " if you don't endure the winter, you don't deserve the summers.". Anti-"summer home" crowd I'm sure. But I know I REALLY appreciate the summers here. And, I have to say, here today in the high 20s it felt downright balmy (I didn't even zip my jacket) compared to the cold spell below 0 we just had (-20 one morning). I guess it's all relative. I went to college in Potsdam, NY (near the Canadian border) where one year during finals in May it snowed! After the winter, when it hit 50, it was time to break out the shorts!

[Steve Behnke]

I spotted the first sail of the year out on the channel in front of the house today, in a light southerly breeze. It was in high 40's here on the water. Yesterday was sunny, with up to high 50's a mile inland. There were still 4 inches of ice in the harbor a week ago when I last checked on Altariel.

We've had minor flooding this past week as our record snowfalls of past 2 weeks melted. That was preceded by a near record cold snap around the end of last year before the jet stream shifted to bring winter to you in the mid-west and east.

Our electricity rates are tripling this month because a snowslide knocked out the lines from our hydro plant again (the second time since last April, after never being hit since the line was constructed in the early 70's), so our utility has to switch to diesel until they can get the line repaired.

Aren't weather (and climate) great conversation topics!