Storm Aftermath

The sun will come out tomorrow, bet your bottom dollar,

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that tomorrow…there’ll be sun.

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And Cold!

The Red Red Robin

I saw another flock yesterday. I hope they found someplace warm to roost before the storm hit. Silly Birds…don’t they know they are supposed to migrate south for the winter?

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WHEN THE RED, RED ROBIN COMES BOB, BOB, BOBBIN’ ALONG
(Harry Woods)
When the Red, Red Robin Comes Bob-Bob Bobbin’ Along
When the red, red robin comes bob, bob, bobbin’ along, along
There’ll be no more sobbin’ when he starts throbbin’ his old sweet song
Wake up, wake up you sleepy head
Get up, get out of your bed
Cheer up, cheer up the sun is red
Live, love, laugh and be happy
What if I were blue, now I’m walking through, walking through the fields of flowers
Rain may glisten but still I listen for hours and hours
I’m just a kid again doing what I did again, singing a song
When the red, red robin comes bob, bob, bobbin’ along
When the red, red robin comes bob, bob, bobbin’
When the red, red robin comes bob, bob, bobbin’ along
There’ll be no more sobbin’ when he starts throbbin’
There’ll be no more sobbin’ when he starts a throbbin’ his old sweet song
Wake up, wake up you sleepy head
Why don’t you get up, get up, get out of bed, cheer up
Live, love, laugh and be happy
What if I were blue, now I’m walking through fields of flowers
Rain may glisten but still I listen for hours and hours
I’m just a kid again, doing what I did again, singing a song
When the red, red robin comes bob, bob, bobbin’
When the red, red robin comes bob, bob, bobbin’ along
Along, along, along, along, along.

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Mother Nature’s at it Again

So much for “clear skies”. The Northeast just went under a blizzard warning for tonight and tomorrow until 1pm. Up to 12 inches of snow and bitter cold is predicted. My co-workers who are flying JetBlue out of Logan (Boston) are scrambling. Flights are already being grounded. Even so some airlines are charging extra to re-book .

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Work emails are flying telling us what the company will pay for and what to do if we have to arrive a day early.

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I spent 45 minutes on hold for Southwest Airlines. According to their web site my plane tomorrow is on- time and scheduled. Once I got through to a real live person I was assured that I would be notified of any change but as of this minute the flight was scheduled to take off on time.

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I just hope I’ll be able to get to the airport to be on it.

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Those Were The Days

Didn’t I just say that I hate the cold? I don’t hate the snow. It’s pretty and if it could be warm I might actually like it. It seems to me as a kid I liked it. I remember snowball fights and snowmen and snow forts. I loved “tracking” little animal prints through the white stuff and even learned to snow shoe.

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Remember the “Flying saucers?”.

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They were round aluminum disks that we sat on to go twirling down the hills when we weren’t racing on the toboggans, I remember the flexible flyer too. We’d hold it up as we ran like crazy only to throw ourselves on it while we were still in the air, kind of like a belly flop except we wanted to do this to get the sled moving faster.

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Remember the ice crusts? We’d use plane old cardboard boxes to go sliding then. Just don’t fall face first as that crust could slice and dice. I made many trips home bloodied up.

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I even went horseback riding in the snow when I could sneak out. That was a big no-no when it should have been a yes-yes to keep the horse from getting too frisky. 🙂 A fine example of 20-20 hindsight. But my point is that I didn’t always hate the cold and snow.

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I hate it now because it hurts. It makes my joints ache, especially my hips, knees and ankles. Today we can add in my right shoulder, maybe from shoveling? I wish it didn’t affect me that way.

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I see these wonderful nature programs on PBS, polar bears, elk, caribou and other northern snow-loving animals.

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I want to photograph these animals in the wild, not at the zoo. I want a picture of a deer standing in a field of snow for one of my Christmas Cards.

White-tailed deer buck in Kananaskis Country, Alberta, Canada

There’s a place, a sanctuary, where I could photograph wolves but the best time to go is, you guessed it, in the winter.

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Right here in Massachusetts we have wintering grounds for snowy owls. The best known one is Duxbury Beach, a six mile long barrier beach. Snowy owls that try to settle at Logan Airport are trapped and moved to this stretch of sand to rest before they continue on their southern migration.

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Photographing the “Snowies”  is a common winter pastime for bird photographers and birders hold walks to look for them along the beach, but let me tell you, that wind off the water is cold. I’ve driven over to that beach only to chicken out once the wind hit me. I guess I’ll never make a serious nature photographer…more like a fair weather one.

So until I figure out how to keep warm out there, I’ll stand by my “I hate the cold” comment.