Changing weather
10/11/14 05:27
The hills are known for dramatic changes of weather. It really is one of the delights of living here. I sometimes joke that the official slogan of South Dakota ought to be “All four seasons every day!” That isn’t quite true. In fact, outside of one early autumn snow storm, we’ve had remarkably warm weather throughout the fall. And the weather forecasts have been remarkably accurate in recent years so we usually have plenty of warning when a storm is headed our way.
At midnight last night it was raining gently. By 4 a.m. we had about an inch of snow and it was falling steadily. The forecast is for it to continue through the afternoon today. It is calm right now, but the wind is supposed to pick up through the day. That won’t have much of an effect on us, but it could be pretty hard to see and drive out in the open country. And it is going to stay cold for a few days - perhaps below zero at this time tomorrow.
There will be a few complaints, but complaining about the weather is a bit of a pastime around here. I always figure if people are doing that amount of complaining, there must be some entertainment value in the complaining. It’s a bit like the ranchers at the cafe when I lived in North Dakota. Complaining was what they seemed to enjoy best when they had a bit of free time. If they didn’t complain about the weather, they’d complain about politics. Of course they didn’t have all that much free time, so it wasn’t very dramatic. And the Scandinavian blood runs deep in that community. The difference between really upset and extremely happy isn’t a huge distinction. You have to know someone pretty well to notice the difference. Expressing emotions isn’t at the top of their list. Or, perhaps more accurately, subtlety was their art. No point in shouting when raising an eyebrow will accomplish the same thing. No point in saying something out loud when any fool can see what is going on in the first place.
It’s like the people with whom I grew up.
I have a friend who lives in Minnesota (and pronounces that word the way I do, too). He has a rich Swedish heritage and fits in well in his particular small town. Outside of raucous cheering at high school sports events, he rarely raises his voice. No need. This past weekend, his son married a girl from an east coast Italian family. The whole extended family headed to Massachusetts for the big wedding. Now there is an event I would like to see. I imagine that you wouldn’t have to ask “friend of the bride or friend of the groom?” You’d be able to tell by the volume. Of course I don’t have much real experience with folks of Italian extract. But I imagine them to be loud a emotional and ready to hug or punch you in the face depending on the circumstances. I imagine lots of wonderful food and people who express their enjoyment with lots of boisterous conversation. And I imagine the wine flowing freely and the conversation even more so.
You probably don’t need a concealed hip flask to get a little alcohol into an Italian wedding.
My fantasy, of course, could be far from the reality. My people have always bent toward restraint when it comes to expressing emotions. When I first discovered huggers in college and seminary it was a bit strange. I know all the people in our church who expect to be greeted with a hug. The others always get a hand shake. That’s fine with me. We’re not too big on physical expression.
My people, however, do know how to raise their voices. That may be partly the product of having grown up in a big family. There were so many people at the dinner table that if you waited for a moment of silence before speaking you might need to wait for several years and by then you would have forgotten what it was you wanted to say in the first place. In our family if you wanted to make a point, turning up the volume was the accepted technique. My dad loved having a whole gang of people at the dinner table who would talk and talk and talk. When we got to school, we were surprised that there were families who could eat a meal in under an hour. When I met my wife, the gentle and polite conversation at their family’s dinner table was at first refreshing, but later a little intimidating as I had to remember where I was and adjust my conversation appropriately.
An extended diatribe on the weather wouldn’t be the right way to greet my wife this morning. Much better to make a pot of coffee and pour her a cup and wait for her to speak first. It only took me about 40 years or so to learn that one.
Today will be a good day for lingering over the morning coffee. We don’t have any need to leave the house. The pantry is stocked. The summer equipment has been properly stored. The snowblower is ready if we need it. I’m not planning to load up a kayak and head for the lake today. I’ll probably make my miles on the rowing machine later today. I’ve got a stack of things that need to be done at that computer and a stack of books to read. I’d be good if we were snowed in for a few days, but the forecast doesn’t promise that kind of weather.
I remember a story from our church in North Dakota. The members were finishing the interior construction of their new church building, preparing for the grand opening worship and celebration. They were doing a bit of touch up painting and clean-up the night before the big event and the refrigerator was filling up with food for the next day’s celebrations. That’s when the blizzard set in. As it got later and later they decided it would be a good night to be snowed in at the church. Obviously their guests wouldn’t be arriving the next day and they had plenty of food and the church was brand new, warm and comfortably sealed. When they told the story years later they were found of saying, “It only took 4 or 5 trips home to get the things we needed to be snowed in.”
It doesn’t look like we’ll be snowed in. And if we are. I can always put the chains on the truck and run to town for supplies if we need.
At midnight last night it was raining gently. By 4 a.m. we had about an inch of snow and it was falling steadily. The forecast is for it to continue through the afternoon today. It is calm right now, but the wind is supposed to pick up through the day. That won’t have much of an effect on us, but it could be pretty hard to see and drive out in the open country. And it is going to stay cold for a few days - perhaps below zero at this time tomorrow.
There will be a few complaints, but complaining about the weather is a bit of a pastime around here. I always figure if people are doing that amount of complaining, there must be some entertainment value in the complaining. It’s a bit like the ranchers at the cafe when I lived in North Dakota. Complaining was what they seemed to enjoy best when they had a bit of free time. If they didn’t complain about the weather, they’d complain about politics. Of course they didn’t have all that much free time, so it wasn’t very dramatic. And the Scandinavian blood runs deep in that community. The difference between really upset and extremely happy isn’t a huge distinction. You have to know someone pretty well to notice the difference. Expressing emotions isn’t at the top of their list. Or, perhaps more accurately, subtlety was their art. No point in shouting when raising an eyebrow will accomplish the same thing. No point in saying something out loud when any fool can see what is going on in the first place.
It’s like the people with whom I grew up.
I have a friend who lives in Minnesota (and pronounces that word the way I do, too). He has a rich Swedish heritage and fits in well in his particular small town. Outside of raucous cheering at high school sports events, he rarely raises his voice. No need. This past weekend, his son married a girl from an east coast Italian family. The whole extended family headed to Massachusetts for the big wedding. Now there is an event I would like to see. I imagine that you wouldn’t have to ask “friend of the bride or friend of the groom?” You’d be able to tell by the volume. Of course I don’t have much real experience with folks of Italian extract. But I imagine them to be loud a emotional and ready to hug or punch you in the face depending on the circumstances. I imagine lots of wonderful food and people who express their enjoyment with lots of boisterous conversation. And I imagine the wine flowing freely and the conversation even more so.
You probably don’t need a concealed hip flask to get a little alcohol into an Italian wedding.
My fantasy, of course, could be far from the reality. My people have always bent toward restraint when it comes to expressing emotions. When I first discovered huggers in college and seminary it was a bit strange. I know all the people in our church who expect to be greeted with a hug. The others always get a hand shake. That’s fine with me. We’re not too big on physical expression.
My people, however, do know how to raise their voices. That may be partly the product of having grown up in a big family. There were so many people at the dinner table that if you waited for a moment of silence before speaking you might need to wait for several years and by then you would have forgotten what it was you wanted to say in the first place. In our family if you wanted to make a point, turning up the volume was the accepted technique. My dad loved having a whole gang of people at the dinner table who would talk and talk and talk. When we got to school, we were surprised that there were families who could eat a meal in under an hour. When I met my wife, the gentle and polite conversation at their family’s dinner table was at first refreshing, but later a little intimidating as I had to remember where I was and adjust my conversation appropriately.
An extended diatribe on the weather wouldn’t be the right way to greet my wife this morning. Much better to make a pot of coffee and pour her a cup and wait for her to speak first. It only took me about 40 years or so to learn that one.
Today will be a good day for lingering over the morning coffee. We don’t have any need to leave the house. The pantry is stocked. The summer equipment has been properly stored. The snowblower is ready if we need it. I’m not planning to load up a kayak and head for the lake today. I’ll probably make my miles on the rowing machine later today. I’ve got a stack of things that need to be done at that computer and a stack of books to read. I’d be good if we were snowed in for a few days, but the forecast doesn’t promise that kind of weather.
I remember a story from our church in North Dakota. The members were finishing the interior construction of their new church building, preparing for the grand opening worship and celebration. They were doing a bit of touch up painting and clean-up the night before the big event and the refrigerator was filling up with food for the next day’s celebrations. That’s when the blizzard set in. As it got later and later they decided it would be a good night to be snowed in at the church. Obviously their guests wouldn’t be arriving the next day and they had plenty of food and the church was brand new, warm and comfortably sealed. When they told the story years later they were found of saying, “It only took 4 or 5 trips home to get the things we needed to be snowed in.”
It doesn’t look like we’ll be snowed in. And if we are. I can always put the chains on the truck and run to town for supplies if we need.