snow drifted, the wind
crying because it could not
get in by the fire

From the book Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder and the line, “But Laura and Mary listened to that lonely sound in the dark and the cold of the Big Woods, and they were not afraid.

They were cosy and comfortable in their little house made of logs, with the snow drifted around it and the wind crying because it could not get in by the fire.

It was 32 degrees Fahrenheit this morning in the low country.

I didn’t come here for the cool weather let me tell you.

Much is made of, in the News, when the snow storms in the South because the South doesn’t think about snow.

There are no snow shovels.

There is no road salt.

There are no snow plows.

There are no shoulders along the roads to put the snow or to direct your car when you lose control.

It is a big deal.

More so it seems to the people up north that the people in the south don’t prepare for snow.

Do you know why the people in the south don’t prepare for snow?

They DON’T HAVE TO!

If it snows down here, it IS a surprise … not something you have to prepare for like you do up north.

Today there is no snow, no ice.

Just cold.

And the south doesn’t think about cold.

I am sitting in my office and my fingers are numb.

My feet are blocks of ice.

I have on 4 shirts and a fleece vest.

BTW, the vest is something I picked up on sale one summer in an outfitters store in Mackinac, Michigan.

It would be just the thing, I said, to wear at work IN MICHIGAN … IN THE SUMMER TIME, when the air conditioning was set to 65.

When I started work here, the building I work in had central air and central heating, South Carolina style, which means these huge on-the-wall units in each area of the building.

We had a remote control for the unit and we could turn up the heat or turn down the AC as we wanted.

Over the summer the building went through a multi-million dollar renovation and standard central HVAC was installed.

The thermostat is NOT in my office.

I am not sure where that thermostat is located.

What I do know is that whatever room it is in, it must be about 85 degrees because in my office, on a morning where it is 32 degree’s outside, the air conditioning is running.

The sunny south.

It IS sunny outside but you cannot see the cold.

I can feel it, but I can’t see it.

What do I miss from living in the north.

The change in seasons?

Somehow that seems to be on most folks lists.

The food?

The beauty of the Great Lake State?

Nope.

I think back to warm heat.

The heat from a fire place.

The warmth of being inside where the wind is crying … because it can’t get in by the fire.

hurricane waiting
rain raining and wind blowing
not much else happens

It became evident to me after a few fast rounds with the radio that the broadcasters had opened up on Edna awfully far in advance, before she had come out of her corner, and were spending themselves at a reckless rate. During the morning hours, they were having a tough time keeping Edna going at the velocity demanded of emergency broadcasting. I heard one fellow from, I think, Riverhead, Long Island, interviewing his out-of-doors man, who had been sent abroad in a car to look over conditions on the eastern end of the island.

That is a short excerpt from EB White’s famous essay, The Eye of Edna (The New Yorker, September 25, 1954) where Mr. White told the story following Hurricane Edna using live reports … on the radio.

It was on my mind today as Hurricane Idalia came by.

Lots of dire warnings.

Lots of views of other places.

But here.

Rain raining.

Wind blowing.

The tide might be high but there is that blue moon anyway to help that along.

But you don’t want to be caught out in this if it gets worse.

So the wait continues.

Back in Mr. White wrote that. “The radio either lets Nature alone or gives her the full treatment, as it did at the approach of the storm. The idea, of course, is that the radio shall perform a public service by warning people of a storm that might prove fatal; and this the radio certainly does. But another effect of the radio is to work people up to an incredible state of alarm many hours in advance of the blow, while they are still fanned by the mildest zephyrs.”

The people I used to work with in TV News always shouted, “We are here to INFORM you, not scare you!”

And pass along advice.

As they did in 1954 when Mr. White noted, “… a man was repeating the advice I had heard many times. Fill the car with gas before the pumps lose their power. Get an old-fashioned clock that is independent of electricity. Set the refrigerator adjustment to a lower temperature”

I never thought about the clock today but I made sure my phone was charged though that will depend on cell towers being up and working.

Mr. White said, “There are always two stages of any disturbance in the country — the stage when the lights and the phone are still going, the stage when these are lost.”

All these moderns connections and conveniences.

Haven’t really come that far in the face of a Hurricane I guess.

I will tell one thing that caught me off guard.

I have been watching the storm all day through my window.

Its gray and windswept.

I know these days from growing up in Michigan.

Then I went outside for a quick trip to grab some supplies and I ran out the door and ducked my head … into the 40mph 85 degree storm.

It WAS HOT.

From my window, it was a COLD gray Michigan day.

Walking into 100% humidity and seeing folks in T shirts and shorts caught me off guard.

I am not in Michigan anymore.

perihelion and
aphelion move eastward
solstices move westward

Over thousands of years, the Earth’s axial tilt and orbital eccentricity vary (see Milankovitch cycles). The equinoxes and solstices move westward relative to the stars while the perihelion and aphelion move eastward. Thus, ten thousand years from now Earth’s northern winter will occur at aphelion and northern summer at perihelion. The severity of seasonal change — the average temperature difference between summer and winter in location — will also change over time because the Earth’s axial tilt fluctuates between 22.1 and 24.5 degrees.

Smaller irregularities in the times are caused by perturbations of the Moon and the other planets.

From Wikipedia.

rain plays a little
sleep song on our roof at night
… and I love the rain

April Rain Song

Let the rain kiss you
Let the rain beat upon your head with silver liquid drops
Let the rain sing you a lullaby
The rain makes still pools on the sidewalk
The rain makes running pools in the gutter
The rain plays a little sleep song on our roof at night
And I love the rain.

From The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes by Langston Hughes, 1994 by Alfred A. Knopf.

It’s been dry.

It’s been dry here in the Low Country of South Carolina.

One mile from the Atlantic Ocean and there isn’t enough water on the land, despite how much water is next to the land.

According to the United States Department of Agriculture, the Low Country is Abnormally Dry but not in a drought.

And it has started to rain.

A storm has anchored itself off the coast of South Carolina and the lows and highs and storm fronts have locked this storm into place over head and it is going to rain.

It will most likely rain for the next day.

It might rain for the next two days.

It could rain for the next three days.

As you might guess, it is Memorial Day Weekend.

I think that pretty much guarantee’s rain for the next three days.

We live in an ocean side resort community.

People have put a lot of time, money and effort into arranging a Memorial Day vacation at the shore.

I think that pretty much guarantee’s rain for the next three days.

We live in the south of South Carolina.

Life here is designed to be lived outdoors.

Miles of beaches, acres of golf courses and very little opportunity to do anything under cover or indoors.

I think that pretty much guarantee’s rain for the next three days.

I think of the weather jokes I learned during 20 years of working in local TV news.

What do you call the day that follows two days of rain?

Monday!

By law, the seventh day of a seven day forecast is always warm and sunny. You just never get to that seventh day …

Turn a frown upside down … you get rain in your nose.

It is so true that everyone talks about the weather but no one does anything about it.

And I can’t do anything about it.

I guarantee rain for the next three days.

So I will watch it.

So I will listen to it.

And without other options, I will love it.

Let the rain kiss you
Let the rain beat upon your head with silver liquid drops
Let the rain sing you a lullaby
The rain makes still pools on the sidewalk
The rain makes running pools in the gutter
The rain plays a little sleep song on our roof at night
And I love the rain.