Musings & Thoughts for Sunday, January 7, 2024, or: Weekend Update, Part the Second (It’s Snowing Out There Edition)

Late Morning/Midday, Sunday, January 7, 2024, Madison, New Hampshire

“The snow had ceased, and the sky was a soft eggshell color, the mountains dreaming under their woolen blankets. There was a loveliness in the forest’s absence of color, its haunted dark framed by grey-white boughs, as if the snowfall had winnowed it down to the essence of what a forest is.” ― Heather Fawcett, Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries

Hi, folks. It is a cold, snowy late Sunday morning here in my corner of New England. As I begin this, the 1,389^th entry in A Certain Point of View, Too, the temperature in Madison is 19°F/-7°C under light snow showers. Today’s forecast for Carroll County calls for more snow throughout the daylight hours. The high will be 21°F/-6°C. Tonight, we can expect light snow showers to pass through the Conway/Madison area. The low will be 12°F/-11°C.

It’s been snowing here since, oh, 10:30 last night, so when I woke up the second time this morning (the first time was between 3 and 4, thanks to an anxiety attack) at 8:30 AM, I saw a blanket of the white stuff outside. Looking out from the living room window, I saw that there was snow on the front porch. I also noticed a lone bird flying resolutely toward one of the two bird feeders that hang out front. I tried to get a shot of him with my phone’s camera – or her – trying to get some breakfast, but I couldn’t quite get that bird in the frame quickly enough.

I did, however, take a few snapshots of the still-falling snow from the living room, kitchen and dining room windows; I’m no Ansel Adams, Bob Capa, or Henri Cartier-Bresson, but I think that for a guy who sometimes has shaky hands when taking photos with any type of camera, I got some decent (if not impressive) photos.

Sunday Plans

Since the weather outside, from this Florida native’s perspective anyway, is indeed frightful, I don’t plan on going outside, not even to get a dose of sunlight. It’s too cold; I’ve never lived anywhere where the temperature drops to the teens (in Fahrenheit) as a matter of course, so for me, going outside to look at – and even touch – the snow is not happening.

I do have suitable clothes for winter, including three pairs of gloves, sweaters, and whatnot, and presently I’m wearing four layers – five if I add a winter jacket. But…I’m not going out to the front yard to make a snowman or lie on the ground and make a “snow angel.”

So, my plans for this first Sunday of 2024 – and first “snow day” – are to:

• Stay inside
• Stay warm
• Make an occasional cup of cocoa
• Keep myself entertained with books, music, computer games, and streamed movies via the PC (my replacement Blu-ray remote won’t arrive till Tuesday at the earliest, and I need two AA batteries for it even if it arrived tomorrow)
• Avoid stress – as much as humanly possible, anyway

Well, that’s all the news I have for you today, so I’ll close this post here. Until next time, stay safe, stay warm, stay healthy, and I’ll catch you on the sunny side of things.