The other day this area had freezing rain. When I looked out my window, the trees and shrubs were encased in glass. Very pretty. I tried to take a picture, but it turned out to be one of those instances where, unless you are hugely talented as a photographer, it's very hard for the camera to capture what the eye sees.
Once the roads were no longer icy, I went out in my car. Stop signs and street signs had combs of little icicles hanging from them.
Today it's been snowing. I noticed that there were little footprints on my front porch. I opened the door and saw that an animal's paw prints went up the steps and onto the porch. I guess a furry visitor, probably a canine one, approached my front door but couldn't reach the doorbell.
Well, as I like to say, all this winter weather is very pretty; but cars and winter don't mix very well. I think I could live happily enough somewhere where it never snows. On the other hand, many people say they like the change of the seasons, and that it's boring and monotonous if the weather is always the same. I do have to say, once summer comes to Chicago, we value it and try to take advantage of it more than we would if we had it all year 'round.
Copyright © 2009 by Richard Stein
Showing posts with label winter. Show all posts
Showing posts with label winter. Show all posts
Saturday, December 26, 2009
Thursday, May 28, 2009
The Seasons
In the summer I do my sad little version of "gardening," that is, tending flowers in containers on my second-story porch. Still, I do enjoy making things grow, and there's the reward of having the pretty flowers, too.
And there's walking (I like to take little hikes in a nearby wildlife refuge, although I don't do as much of this as I used to, due to joint pain), reading out on my porch, and cooking and eating out there, too. (Makes me wonder how I pass my time in the winter. Now don't start envisioning someone sitting by the fire knitting—I may have a fire, but I don't knit.) Also, here in Chicago—unlike some places where you could do all the year 'round those things that we do in summer--we appreciate our nice weather all the more once it comes.
Certainly we make adjustments to our lives according to the seasons. There are lots of "outdoor activities" that are associated with summer. There are outdoor winter activities, too--skiing, snowmobiling, ice skating--but I never was into any of those. There was a time, many years ago—either when I was trying to write a PhD thesis or a period of unemployment—when I spent a time outdoors pretty much daily, all through the winter: hiking around with my camera, clambering up on the ice dunes that form on the beach, taking pictures. It seems as though you can develop a certain adaptation or tolerance to the cold weather, and I have never again, since that winter, had that kind of acclimatization. Nowadays I don't have to experience winter's cold very much simply because I don't do the walking, don't spend much time outdoors, don't go anywhere except in my car. (Once in a while I shovel a little snow, but that's mostly performed for me.) Not that that's entirely a good thing, but it does lessen the degree to which I want to leave our cold climate behind.
Also, I am perhaps not quite yet in that age regime, but there comes an age when your balance is not as good so that there's the danger of slipping and falling on ice. Old folks who fall might sustain fractures. Not a cheery thought, but the point is that if I don't do all the wintertime tramping around outdoors that I once did, I'm not as much at risk for that sort of thing.
Anyway, it's summer. Time to put all that out of mind and enjoy all the advantages of this time of year.
Copyright © 2009 by Richard Stein
And there's walking (I like to take little hikes in a nearby wildlife refuge, although I don't do as much of this as I used to, due to joint pain), reading out on my porch, and cooking and eating out there, too. (Makes me wonder how I pass my time in the winter. Now don't start envisioning someone sitting by the fire knitting—I may have a fire, but I don't knit.) Also, here in Chicago—unlike some places where you could do all the year 'round those things that we do in summer--we appreciate our nice weather all the more once it comes.
Certainly we make adjustments to our lives according to the seasons. There are lots of "outdoor activities" that are associated with summer. There are outdoor winter activities, too--skiing, snowmobiling, ice skating--but I never was into any of those. There was a time, many years ago—either when I was trying to write a PhD thesis or a period of unemployment—when I spent a time outdoors pretty much daily, all through the winter: hiking around with my camera, clambering up on the ice dunes that form on the beach, taking pictures. It seems as though you can develop a certain adaptation or tolerance to the cold weather, and I have never again, since that winter, had that kind of acclimatization. Nowadays I don't have to experience winter's cold very much simply because I don't do the walking, don't spend much time outdoors, don't go anywhere except in my car. (Once in a while I shovel a little snow, but that's mostly performed for me.) Not that that's entirely a good thing, but it does lessen the degree to which I want to leave our cold climate behind.
Also, I am perhaps not quite yet in that age regime, but there comes an age when your balance is not as good so that there's the danger of slipping and falling on ice. Old folks who fall might sustain fractures. Not a cheery thought, but the point is that if I don't do all the wintertime tramping around outdoors that I once did, I'm not as much at risk for that sort of thing.
Anyway, it's summer. Time to put all that out of mind and enjoy all the advantages of this time of year.
Copyright © 2009 by Richard Stein
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