Gorgeous day today.
Topic: Nature
[index] [bot]00:14 Monday, 17 March, 2003
Ithaca, NY
Gorgeous day today.
Today was the first real day of spring. We've had a couple of teasing thaws in January and February, as we do every year, but this is finally it. And what a way to announce its arrival! Now, mind you, this has been an *exceptional* winter. I don't know all of the statistics and stuff, but I know that there has been a consistent ground-cover of snow since November (totally rare for upstate New York), and that the temperature must have been at least 20?F below average. And I'm not exaggerating. We'll usually get some cold spells here and there, some below zero, but the temp. will always rebound to something more comfortable, like around 30. This winter we had at
least three-weeks worth of days where the *high* for the day was only in the single digits. And the nights were just death. The funny thing about it all: we got used to it. After a week of 5-8? weather, a day at 22? felt like summer. And I totally loved it. I wish
every winter could be like this. And the reason I say that is this: when you have the normal winters when you get snow, it melts a week later, the temperature hovers around 35?, it snows again,
etc., it's
still cold outside. Sure, it's not
as cold, but it's certainly not what anyone would consider comfortable outside. Comfortable is something over 60?F. Anything less than that requires careful planning in terms of clothing, and is therefore not comfortable. If you need clothing to be comfortable, that means the air itself is not comfortable. That said, 25? is infinitely better than 35?. Since they're both uncomfortable, why not have a temperature at which snow is actually snow, instead of wet, soggy, slush that just gets you soaked if you touch it, and melts away so that you can't use it for much? We got a decent amount of snow this year, probably nothing spectacular, but the amazing thing about it is that the *temperature* made it stay around forever and not melt. And, suddenly, all of these people came out of the woodworks to go play in the snow. Snowshoeing, cross-country skiing, ice-climbing -- all of these sports require
consistent, below-freezing temperatures. And those that don't enjoy these things, that's fine, but this weather still doesn't adversely affect your lives. Regardless, you're going to be uncomfortable outside, so you may as well let the rest of us go play.
Anyway, the winter was fantastic. *Finally* a winter I could enjoy. I loved it. And it could keep going on for a while, and I'd be happy. But I've also had enough fun out of it that I'm quite happy for spring to arrive. Spring for me has
always been that wet, uncomfortable time of year that tells me that our chances of snow (which normally have not been sufficient) are finally up, but that it's not time yet to be actually comfortable outside. Yes, there are nice days in spring, but in the North-east, spring typically means 45-55? days of rain, which is still not
comfortable. Until summer hits, one cannot be consistently comfortable, and, as long as it keeps raining, one cannot cheerily go play outside. In the winter, days of precipitation can still be days of fun, because snow does not get one wet, it only covers things up. Until snow comes in contact with something that is
above freezing, it remains a harmless solid. This is one of the wonderful things that I love about snow.
But about today.... We got two inches of snow three days ago, then another day of cold, then a day of border-line niceness, and then spring finally hit today, and I welcomed it with open arms, open windows, open doors. Right now, at midnight, it is 58?F outside. Incredible. It was 60-something this afternoon and perfect. A beautiful, warm breeze was blowing around, all the birds came out, and a lot of snow melted. Everybody I met was just glowing with the happiness that a well-deserved, sunny, warm day brings. We had a barbecue for dinner, and played Frisbee in the street (remember, there's still two feet of snow on the ground), and just basked in the warmth. This has to be the happiest spring-arrival I've ever had in my life. Because it represents the end of something that I actually feel like I've enjoyed enough to do it honor. It's just like anything that you know has to end eventually: for me, the only reason to be sad about its ending is because I don't feel like I got as much out of it as I should have. But this winter I did, so I feel all right letting it go. And what a way for spring to come, too. :) :) :)
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My apartment over-looks a large field that used to be an air-strip. There are a lot of birds around here, with the large field near a lot of forest, offering all different kinds of food and shelter. So the most recent bird to return to the area is the killdeer. I love killdeer. They look a lot like sandpipers, the ones you see scurrying around in the wet sand if you go to the beach. I saw them a lot when I was in college, because a common nesting area for killdeer, in developed areas, is in parking lots. Their eggs look just like small rocks, as a disguise mechanism, so a gravel parking lot is a perfect place for them to 'hide' their eggs. They circle all around in the sky and scurry around the parking lot, crying the whole time, in sharp tones that sound kind of like their name ("Noisy; a loud, insistent kill-deeah, repeated; a plaintive dee-ee (rising), dee-dee-dee, etc. Also a low trill." says Peterson's Field Guide to the Birds). Anyway, I just love having them around. And one thing I especially like is knowing that they're living in their natural habitat here, not just adapting to the environments we've created for our exclusive use. Granted, the airstrip is not perfectly natural, but it is no longer in use, and is a lot more natural than a parking lot.