urban ku # 24 ~ whining about the weather

from here to there • click on photo to embiggen itI'm back. There was no entry yesterday because I have been without cable/internet for the past 24 hrs. A construction crew severed the main optics cable for the entire region.

The From here to there diptych was photographed late Thursday afternoon around 5pm. The obvious referent in both photographs is Whiteface Mt., which, at 4867ft., towers over The Flats in Wilmington (in the LH photograph). Also notice the grey pallor and crusty snow.

The connoted in this diptych, at least for me, is that of a melancholy winter-of-discontent. As has been the case for the last few winters, there have been no winter storms and only sporatic snowfall. There has been lots of extended way-below-normal cold spells - night temps well below zero and daytime single digits - which are always accompanied by significant wind with brutal wind-chill factors.

The net result is a winter(s) that make staying indoors a very desirable, but highly unsatisfying, activity...or should I say, inactivity. And this from a guy who loves to head up into the High Peaks for a few days of sub-zero winter mountaineering/camping - bagging a peak in a driving snowstorm, waking up to and smelling a thick blanket of fresh fallen snow, snowshoeing/xc skiing though birchy alpine meadows/glens in an almost eery snow-dampened quiet, eating a warm dinner by candle/latern light in a snug and cozy winter tent.

Let me tell you, there's a huge difference between a -5F with gentle snowfall day in the woods and a +10F with -15F wind-chill day in the woods. No matter how prepared you are, the first is a distinct pleasure, the second (as a steady diet) is usually pure agony.