7 minutes to write a winter blog
You know it’s a bad sign when objects in your refrigerator freeze. Woke up this morning to find the thermostat in the boat read 32 degrees. Inside. Now that’s a record for us.
Careful what you wish for. I wished for a high-pressure system to push out all these lows that have brought rain and coughing northwesterlies that snap the stern lines like a bull-whip. That high came in and we were at nine degrees. Of course the sun shines and the air so clean and clear it looks like it might shatter if you took a hammer claw to it. Then snow cold and silt-like on the junction boxes of the docks. Dog steps off the boat sniffs the air and closes his blond eyelashes against the wind coming out of the northeast. The only time we get winds out of the northeast, with these highs.
Funny in town how no one plans jack in the summer because of the capricious and mercurial nature of folks due to the endless sun-drenched days. But winter – one must be distracted from alcohol and suicide so events of all manner are planned to the extent that you have not one minute left to yourself to get a good noose going or knock back a bottle of Crowne. Instead you have the Grind, the local talent show, potlucks, Christmas-tree burning parties, readings and fundraisers of every sort. The Adak hosted Alexander Allison’s 40th Birthday party this past Friday – and boy was it fun. We set off Japanese aptly-named trance lanterns which floated up into the sky with its waning moon flickered and disappeared. Only the young with their good eyes could see the faint outline of the husk. Also hosted a dinner of Thai green halibut curry and blacktail backstrap. Oh boy.
I make my contribution to the fund of keeping folks busy by teaching Cuban salsa. We have three classes and they’re all full. Important I’ve found to continue to move. I’m starting a carpentry job this Monday – I’ve avoided it long enough – and it will be interesting skirting and insulating a mobile home in ten degrees.
Oh and a third dog trying to board the Adak fell in the water and had to be gaffed out by the collar. So we came together and made a gangplank. Originally thought of using walnut shells for tread and I loved the poetry of that but ended up embedding Grip-It which works great except when it’s icy and then you need ice-pics and cramp-ons to get onto the boat.
A hike up Verstovia to Picnic Rock above town threading your way among western hemlock and Sitka spruce and red cedar makes those mornings worth it with your ears and fingers burning with cold. Canning preserves of persimmon pear apple coconut oil and ginger also helps.
Doing such things makes all the silliness worth it, that pure and simple effort to stay warm, and to spread that warmth in as many directions at once as possible.
