Beauty in the deep freeze
posted in Alaska, Illnesses, Weather |We are going on day 12 of two-digit temperatures below zero. While it is a cause of intense cabin fever, there is beauty in the cold.
When the breeze stirs the trees, the frozen trunks clack against each other with a hollow sound that reminds me of the sound of elk antlers crashing in the dark in mid-September during the season of rut. Clack-clack-clackity-clack…quiet…clack…creak…quiet…clack-clack-clack…
The crystalline structure of snow changes as it gets colder; when a snowfall is new, everything is hushed, including footfalls. When it’s this cold, the snow squeaks and crunches as you walk on it; there is no hush. Scrunch-squeak-crunch, scrunch-squeak-crunch, scrunch-squeak-crunch.
There are times when I wish we had OmegaDad’s favorite non-existent invention, the retina-cam. Driving the dotter to her gymnastics class on Monday–the only day this week that she’s been out–I saw the late afternoon sunlight backlight the clouds of steam coming off the fire station’s heating system on the roof, and it was beautiful. Walking out to check on the (voracious, rabid, grape-hunting) chickens in the late night, I was crunching through a cold snowy landscape flooded with the light from the waxing gibbous moon and wished there was a way to capture that picture. (By the way, this weekend’s full moon is the biggest of the year.)
Each of these times, of course, I have had neither recorder nor camera handy.
Vignettes of the cold:
- The thermometer broke at -80 in Tok. The Weather Service pooh-poohs it, claiming it was only -65. Tok is nowhere near us, thank heavens; we’ve only hit -29.
- The good thing about the deep freeze is that when it’s up around zero, it feels warm.
- When it’s this cold, it’s a Bad Idea to unthinkingly grab the handle of a grocery cart in the parking lot with your bare hands. The cold, it burns. Fast.
- The plumbers in this area are so backed up it’s frightening; the cold has lasted long enough that normally well-insulated houses have frozen pipes.
- The U.S. Cross-Country Skiing Championships were delayed multiple times; in protest, a group of skiers from California decided to ski in the buff, wearing only briefs, bras, gloves and hats. “It’s not so bad!” exclaims one insane young man.
- The cold seems to draw any moisture in the house air straight to the windows, where it freezes. I envision molecules of water doing slo-mo race sequences, a la Steve Austin (The Six Million Dollar Man? Oh, go away, kiddies, those of us oldsters know what I’m describing), or to the theme from Rocky.
OmegaDad and I are finally out of the woods in terms of the Illness Of Doom. Hurray! The dotter, however, is still sick, still running fevers, and I’m close to the “it’s time for the doctor” stage for her.
