Weather-wise, a northern California Christmas in Minnesota
Christmas Day 2011
Mankato, Minnesota
This morning I trotted out to pick up the paper in my bathrobe and slippers. Of course, there was no Free Press, being Christmas Day, which is fine with me as I'm a strong believer that paper carriers deserve a rest at least once a year. (My kids and I did our local Free Press route for a short while one winter when we were all younger. Just a couple of months was enough to realize it's a thankless job for very little pay.)
But the point is that I was in my bathrobe and slippers. On Christmas Day. In Minnesota.
And yesterday, Christmas Eve day, I was doing yard work. Not the shoveling snow kind. The raking leaves and moving brush kind. In shirtsleeves. No jacket.
In fact, this Christmas reminds me of the Christmases I enjoyed in northern California growing up: Sunny with mild temperatures. And of course no snow.
Is there something a bit odd here?
And then I came across this article from the New York Times that Tom Maertens had posted on Vox Verax. It reminds me of all the work we have to do in the coming years to make up for the past century or so of our American expectation that everyday should be Christmas.
That thought aside, I do wish all our Vox Verax readers a very pleasant Christmas day spent with family and friends.
Leigh Pomeroy
Mankato, Minnesota
This morning I trotted out to pick up the paper in my bathrobe and slippers. Of course, there was no Free Press, being Christmas Day, which is fine with me as I'm a strong believer that paper carriers deserve a rest at least once a year. (My kids and I did our local Free Press route for a short while one winter when we were all younger. Just a couple of months was enough to realize it's a thankless job for very little pay.)
But the point is that I was in my bathrobe and slippers. On Christmas Day. In Minnesota.
And yesterday, Christmas Eve day, I was doing yard work. Not the shoveling snow kind. The raking leaves and moving brush kind. In shirtsleeves. No jacket.
In fact, this Christmas reminds me of the Christmases I enjoyed in northern California growing up: Sunny with mild temperatures. And of course no snow.
Is there something a bit odd here?
And then I came across this article from the New York Times that Tom Maertens had posted on Vox Verax. It reminds me of all the work we have to do in the coming years to make up for the past century or so of our American expectation that everyday should be Christmas.
That thought aside, I do wish all our Vox Verax readers a very pleasant Christmas day spent with family and friends.
Leigh Pomeroy
Labels: Christmas, climate change
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2 Comments:
Merry Christmas, Leigh! Compared to the last few brutally cold and snowy Christmas's (I remember last year's quite well because my dear dog Brodie died on Dec 18 and I remember how bitterly cold it was) we're bound to have one winter every few years with no snow on the ground here. Not to worry, though. Winter is in full fury down south.
Happy Holidays, Leigh !
Ah, those Christmas memories from years gone by ... making money to buy Christmas presents by shoveling the neighbor's yard and then "the Day" when the extended family would gather for sledding with my cousins or making a snow fort in the yard ... well, kids today will not have that experience.
But heck, today's kids spend time on video games ... too bad, if they had to be inside, I wish that SciFi Channel would run The Twilight Zone episode entitled The Midnight Sun ... are you familiar with it ???
The Earth has begun moving away from its usual orbit and is gradually falling in its rotation towards the sun. Norma, and her landlady, Mrs. Bronson, are the last people in their apartment building. The rest of the people in the apartment complex either moved north where it is much cooler or perished from the extremely high temperatures. They watch in terror as their water supply is turned on for merely an hour a day, and their electricity is being greatly conserved. Food and water are growing to be extremely scarce. As mentioned by a radio reporter, all citizens are to remain indoors and to remain prepared for a looter rampage. The radio reporter also states that you can "cook eggs on your sidewalk and cook soup in the oceans". But with the Rod Sterling interpretation of the future world, Norma is bedridden with a high fever, and is accompanied by Mrs. Bronson and a doctor. She was only dreaming that the Earth was moving closer to the sun. In reality, the Earth is ironically moving away from the Sun, which will eventually lead to the earth freezing over.
It's a great episode ... tells us that what we are lead to believe may not be scientifically factual ... and hopefully, you read the MFP OpEd featuring climatologist, and evangelical Christian, Katharine Hayhoe ... “People ask me if I believe in global warming. I tell them, ‘No, I don’t,’ because belief is faith; faith is the evidence of things not seen. Science is evidence of things seen. To have an open mind, we have to use the brains that God gave us to look at the science.” Climatologist Hayhoe has chosen to be vocal about her trust in scientific data that Global Warming is REAL while retaining her beliefs as a Christian.
With Climatologist Hayhoe and Richard Muller (read his WSJ OpEd) and maybe some saner heads will prevail.
But the problem may not be the scientists who can distinguish between "belief and fact, but instead politicians who distort the facts to confuse the public ... as proven by the Washington Post reporting that "a House Appropriations Committee news release implied that Congress had saved $322 million in fiscal year 2012 by nixing the climate service.
The REALITY : Congress is still giving NOAA those funds for climate research and data delivery. But they’ll be distributed across the agency instead of consolidated under an umbrella climate service. The hundreds of millions in savings trumpeted by the Republican-led Appropriations Committee are an illusion."
Wishing you and your VoxVerax readers a "Well-Informed" New Year.
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