I Love Winter (She Said, Tongue Firmly Planted in Cheek)

EVENING PARHELIA NEAR DICKINSON, ND

I thought for sure I would see parhelia this morning. These "mock suns" or, as we call them here, sun dogs, are caused by light reflected off of or refracted through ice crystals in the atmosphere. (If it's reflected, they're white; if it's refracted, they're colored!) They are usually seen in the morning and the evening, and though there are usually two sun dogs, one on each side of and parallel to the sun, there can be just one.

There weren't any sun dogs to be spotted this morning, but we have seen them often lately. When sun dogs appear here, it means just one thing: "Baby, it's cold outside!"

And it was: 40 below zero F. this morning. We have a saying in North Dakota: "40 below keeps the riffraff out." Let me tell you, there were no riffraff out and about this morning! (PS - It's "only" 30 below now at 10:00 a.m.)

Instead of parhelia, we saw ice fog. Through the ceiling-to-floor glass windows at work, we had a spectacular view of this phenomenon as it hovered above the sinuous turns of the Missouri River.

BACKYARD SNOWBANK

This winter's one for the record books. At 61 inches of snowfall here in Bismarck, it's already the 13th snowiest winter on record. And it's only the middle of January! We can get snow here right through the end of April (Okay, I lied. I should have said, even into May).

The road crews are having a tough time keeping the streets cleared, and it's too cold for sand or salt to work. The streets are getting narrower and narrower as time goes by. Accidents are just waiting to happen.

I have never seen this much snow in North Dakota. Ever. (The area of the state that I'm from missed the great blizzard of March 1966.)

NO BARBECUE TONIGHT!

Quonsets and pole barn roofs are collapsing. The Wal Mart store in Minot (90 miles north of here) has been closed for a week for fear that the roof might collapse. People are being warned to keep their roof vents clear or poisonous gases could build up inside homes.

If cars aren't garaged or plugged in, they're refusing to start with that truly scary sound of protest: A-r-r-r, A-r-r-r-r-r,

A-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r.

Do readers in the South and in Europe know about plugging cars in? We install a heater under the hood, thread the cord through the grill, add a very long extension cord and plug it into an outlet in the garage or house.

DID YOU KNOW ND HAS MOUNTAINS?

The snow and bitterly cold weather has been hard on the wildlife and we will certainly be hearing high winter kill numbers this spring.

PHEASANTS ARE COMING NEAR HOUSES

IN HOPES OF FINDING FOOD

DON'T ROBINS KNOW THEY'RE SUPPOSED

TO FLY SOUTH FOR THE WINTER? PERHAPS, LIKE

THE SONG SAYS, THEY CAN'T AFFORD TO FLY.

(Click on the picture to enlarge and see which

rust-colored blobs are leaves and which are robins.)

DEER ARE BRAVER THAN USUAL AND

COME INTO FARMYARDS TO FORAGE

THIS COW MAY BE MISERABLE BUT IT'S

BETTER OFF THAN THE WILDLIFE!

We all have our winter stories to tell: Cars dying, accidents and near accidents, getting stuck in snowbanks, windshields shattering (yes!). Here's what's happened to me since yesterday afternoon:

The building I work in is four stories high, built into the side of a steep hill. As I pulled out of the first-floor parking lot and onto the street, I saw our department director driving ahead of me. How strange - her SUV wasn't moving. Then I discovered that MY CAR wasn't moving either.

We kept spinning our wheels and resting, spinning and resting (it's impossible to get out the other direction - the road ends at Fraine Barracks, which is gated).

I was afraid she would back up into me but fortunately that didn't happen. Finally, I just crossed my fingers, gunned it, laid rubber and swept past her. (I learned today that she turned around, drove quite a ways down the hill, turned back and just floored it!)

When I got home, I discovered I was trapped by my seat belt. It took about 10 minutes for me to unlatch it. I had visions of myself freezing to death in my car, all because of a seat belt malfunction. Lord, what a way to go!

Things were fine until this morning, when Dan couldn't find my keys. (They may be in the car, dropped when I was trying to wrestle myself out of the boa constrictor grasp of the seat belt. Or, they may be in the snow.)

Dan used his keys, warmed up the car and drove it to the convenience store. On a flat tire, as he discovered. Now the tire is shot. Dan drove me to work in his vehicle. We made sure he dropped me off on the third-floor level.

THE SIGN SAYS IT ALL!

Now you see why I am more sick of winter than I ever have been? Why I want to chuck it all and move somewhere South?

It's a good thing we NoDaks have a sense of humor or we wouldn't make it through.

WE CAN'T BIKE RIGHT NOW SO INSTEAD WE'LL....


SNOW TUBE IN OUR SKIVVIES!!!

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BLESSINGS

1. A cozy warm house.

2. Good stick-to-the-ribs meals.

3. A husband who warms up my car every morning.

4. The possibility of temps of 30-40 above by the weekend.

5. The sun is shining!

**********

"Oh, wind, if winter comes, can spring be far behind?" - Percy Bysshe Shelley.

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All these photos were taken this month in south central or southwest North Dakota. I borrowed them from KFYR-TV'S Sky Spy photos. Visit the website to view more ND photos and see attributions:

http://www.kfyrtv.com/sky_spies.asp?pages=1

ADDED FRIDAY:

I learned on the news last night that the official low for Bismarck for the previous night was -44 degrees F!