Click here to see the earlier months in 2005:
| January 1st | In this age of too many web-sites and too many TV channels giving us wrong weather predictions, let's stick with the the old standby.....the Old Farmer's Almanac. For January it predicts very warm temps and little snow in our neck of the woods. As the month progresses we'll see. |
| January 2nd | We woke up this morning to find 6 more inches of snow on the ground...........the Almanac predicted "flurries". Oops(!), they blew that one. |
| January 3rd | 25 degrees below zero this morning.....the Almanac says "mild" for the rest of the week. I wonder what their definition of "mild" is. Wrong again. Sigh! |
| January 4th | On this date in 1975, the ice thickness at Wilkes Land, Antarctica was measured at 15,669 feet (almost three miles). Today on Little Bass Lake the ice is about 15 inches, but getting thicker everyday. |
| January 5th |
Today cometh the celebration of the Twelfth Night....the Eve
of the Feast of the Epiphany, and the final night of the
Christmas Season. It also means that next Monday (the 10th)
will be Plough Monday, the traditional day for British
Plowmen (and hence, all British laborers) to call an end to
their Holiday and go back into the fields to work.
Incidentally, it was 34 below zero this morning and we're still in the period the Almanac said would be "mild". |
| January 6th |
January 6th is the Feast of the Epiphany and, when I was in grade school, this was the day
our class had its Christmas party and exchanged gifts. We did that because it's the day we
celebrate the arrival of the Magi (the three wise men) at the stable in Bethlehem bringing gifts
to the Baby Jesus.
40 below zero this morning(!).....and still "mild" as per the Old Farmers' Almanac. |
| January 7th | Every morning before the sun comes up, an old man who lives in Cohasset walks down Highway 62 carrying an ice fishing spear. He gets to the yellow house on Little Bass Lake, cuts across the yard, goes down the hill to the shore, and walks across the lake to his fishing shack. The cold weather doesn't seem to bother him because he was out there walking yesterday when the temperature was 40 below zero.....as the sun rose I could see the smoke coming out of the chimney on his fishing shack. He reminds me of the old chinaman who walked through Cannery Row toward the ocean each evening as the sun went down and walked back each morning as the sun came up. Mr. Steinbeck said that he came back each morning with his basket "heavy and dripping with sea water", but he never said what he had in the basket. |
| January 8th | On this day in 1815, the Battle of New Orleans was fought. The war had been over for two weeks, but who knew???? |
| January 9th | Geez I love January! It's nearing 11:00 PM; supper has been over for 3 hours and my friend and I have shared a bottle of wine and a couple glasses of dry sherry in front of his fireplace. It's time to head home. I put on my mukluks, my scarf, my fur hat with the fur lined ear flaps, my coat, and finally my gloves. As I head out the door I have to block the entrance so that the Chocolate Lab that is so used to walking across the lake with me doesn't get out........she's staying here tonight. As I leave, I turn on the flashlight so that I can find my way along the meandering path in the snow through the woods, past the shed, past the old cabin, along the dock, and finally out onto the lake. Now I can turn the flashlight off because the snow cover and the clear sky (even with the absence of the moon) provide enough light to find my way along the wide curving snowmobile track that is my easiest route home. I have to stop several times along the way to savor the silence and the shadowy scenery. Geez I love January! The wind, although it's blowing toward my face, is not as bad as I thought it would be, so in spite of the 10 below zero temperature I pull the scarf down from over my mouth and nose. After walking a mere half mile over the ice, I'm at the shore by cabin # 6. The snowmobile path goes up onto the shore and across the sidewalk (which has been recently shoveled) to my house. I'm home again..........in spite of the wine and the cold and the wind. Geez I love January! |
| January 10th | Congrats(!) to the Vikings and their fans. To the Packer Backers: Sorry about that! |
| January 11th | I don't know why I'm mentioning this......I just am. On this day in 1970 the Minnesota Vikings got beat in Super Bowl IV by the Kansas City Chiefs 27-7. It was the first of four Super Bowl losses for the Vikings. |
| January 12th | As long as we're talking about it: On this day in 1975 the Minnesota Vikings got beat in Super Bowl IX by the Pittsburgh Steelers 16-6. It was the third of their four Super Bowl losses. |
| January 13th | One final dig at the Vikings: On this day in 1974 the Minnesota Vikings got beat in Super Bowl VIII by the Miami Dolphins 24-7. It was the second of their four Super Bowl losses. |
| January 14th | "One should not neglect the pleasures that nature provides." -- Albert Einstein (1922) |
| January 15th | Click on her name to see her......Lucy |
| January 16th | 30 below zero yesterday morning; 39 below zero this morning. This is all part of the "mild" January as per the Old Farmers' Almanac. |
| January 17th | At about 6:00 AM this morning the temperature was 49 below zero. Since it normally goes down a degree or two as the sun rises, I expected it to get down to -50 for the first time in ten years. But by 7:00 it was -48, so it looks like -49 was the low at LBLR this morning. Click here! |
| January 18th | Sometimes I wonder if there's any intelligent life left in the Universe. I guess I don't know about the whole Universe, but occasionally I'm convinced that you couldn't find any here. I've seen times when important things have ceased to be even relevant, meaningless things have become an obsession, pleasant things have become intolerable, and painful things have become sought after with enthusiasm. Unfortunately, I could give you an all-too-close-to-home example of each of those. Life is difficult to understand sometimes! Maybe that's what makes it interesting......but geez! |
| January 19th |
Okay Randy, I hope this sets the record straight: The Vikings are 0-4 in Super Bowl appearances but
as you pointed out, my Detroit Lions have never been in a Super Bowl. However,
they are 3-1 in NFL Championship
games since 1952 (the most recent, unfortunately, was in 1957 which is the
pre-Super Bowl era).
Here's a philosophical question for you: What's worse, 3 NFL championships in 53 years, or no NFL championships in 44 years but with four near misses 30 to 35 years ago? Geez, one has to go back a long way to find something really good about either team, doesn't one? |
| January 20th | Oh my Gosh.....only 338 more days till Christmas!!!!! We just nicely get finished with one, and another is nearly upon us. Damn! |
| January 21st |
"Stick to your guns when you're right!" A very simplistic paraphrase of a long treatise by Ralph Waldo Emmerson (perhaps from Self-Reliance) |
| Janaury 22nd |
This scene was late last night. Click here.
(Hey, Ted T. Do you still exist? Send me an e-mail if you see this.) |
| January 23rd |
There was a perfect ring around the moon tonight.....it was beautiful.
This isn't the one I saw tonight, but this is what it looked like:
Click here.
Incidentally, in the last month we've added 25 minutes to our daylight. And on the Summer Solstice we'll have almost 6 more hours of daylight than we have now. |
| January 24th | Happy birthday(!) to my Dear Sister Beth......now you're at the age when you can retire. Oh wait! You're already retired. |
| January_25th | The mind embraces all the nobler aspects, like philosophy and poetry......but the body has all the fun. -- Woody Allen |
| January 26th | To love is to suffer. So to avoid suffering, one must not love. But then, one suffers from not loving. Therefore, to love is to suffer and not to love is to suffer. But to be happy is to love. To be happy then, is to suffer but suffering makes one unhappy. Therefore to be happy one must love, or love to suffer, or suffer from too much happiness. -- Woody Allen (again) |
| January 27th | We're back in the deep freeze again.....27 below zero this morning. |
| January 28th | "Don't worry about the world coming to an end today......in Australia it's already tomorrow." -- Charles Schultz |
| January 29th | Brian and Ann and Sosha are visiting this weekend. Click here! |
| January 30th | I wouldn't say that my jogging and Racquetball playing are getting slower; I'd simply say that they're becoming more.....um.....well....graceful. |
| January 31st | And so ends my favorite month. Sigh! |
