ShawneeDispatch.com

Right about now, global warming doesn’t seem like such a bad deal after all.

When I got up this morning, the temperature was “hovering” around zero. This trend is supposed to continue for at least the next five days; in fact, it’s even supposed to get colder. Although I wouldn’t wish its pernicious effects on anyone, I could use a little global warming.

Now that the kids and grandkids have all returned to their own hearths after visiting for the holidays, we have sort of gone into hibernation, huddled under our blankets, venturing out to shop or to go to church or for some other vital errand. As I write this at the kitchen table I’m wearing a flannel shirt and a sweater, and I’m still sort of cold.

The driveway is a confused tumble of drifted snow and ice. Some of it got cleared after the first snowfall around Christmas Day, but some of it didn’t. Thankfully, my son-in-law and my older grandson shoveled part of it when they were here right after Christmas. After the latest snowfall I used a push broom to clear some of it off the front steps and the walk to the driveway.

That’s as much as I attempted. I gave up shoveling snow several years ago after reading too many stories about men younger than I who punched their tickets when they went out to clear off their driveways. Out where we live, we’re supposed to have our driveways and sidewalks cleared, but they haven’t shown up yet since the last snowfall.

On a recent foray to the home center I picked up a pair of devices that are sort of like the crampons that mountain climbers wear, only these are made of rubber or some synthetic variant. You stretch them over the soles of your shoes and they will provide you with traction on the ice — as long as they stay on, and provided you don’t put out someone’s eye when they slip out of your hand and go careening across the room like slingshots while you’re trying to put them on.

Out in the backyard, thanks to my efforts to resupply their feeders, the birds are tucking in. I mention the effort required because it was no mean task — the snow on the deck at the rear of the house is up to my knees in places.

As I watched a few minutes ago from the kitchen window, seven were clustered on one feeder while two perched on another and several more awaited their turn with as much patience as birds are known to muster. The books all say we have a great variety of species here but about all I see are finches — provided, of course, that I have the wit to distinguish one from another, which is by no means a sure thing.

My poor water garden is frozen, with a mound of snow about a foot deep on top. I can only assume it hasn’t frozen solid to its two-foot depth yet, because the pump still seems to be working. I think that if it froze solid the electric load would probably trip the circuit breaker and that hasn’t happened yet. When I checked just before Christmas, the last time it warmed enough to melt the ice on top, the fish were still alive. As long as they don’t freeze solid, they should be OK.

In the meantime, mama in her kerchief and I in my cap, we’re bundled up in hopes of warmer days to come. From this perspective, global warming doesn’t seem such a vile prospect.

Comments