Marching On In

Cold out tonight. I just went over to the newspaper at 1:30 a.m. to pick up the copies I need as they came off the press. We’d had a run of fairly warm weather (mid-30s to mid-40s) and gotten used to it real fast. But it didn’t stay around long and now it’s dipped down again. Not only that, but there’s more snow coming, a “winter mix,” as they like to put it. Rain, snow, maybe some sleet.

March usually comes in like a lion, but this year it’s coming in like an igloo.

Off-topic point of information: Mom and I went to the Arctic a few years back and the natives told us there are no such things as igloos. “The first time we saw one was in a Hollywood movie,” an Inuit told us, “and we laughed ourselves silly.” They do have little windbreaks made out of ice chunks when they are fishing or waiting for whales to appear.

Back to Pennsylvania. The weather people said the temps would be going up and down this winter, much like a rollercoaster. They sure got that one right; up one week, down the next, then back again. In a way, it’s good because it makes for a more controlled melt in Binghamton and Elmira NY. We should care about them? Yup; what melts there passes by here two days later. The river these last four days has been pretty steady at just over two feet, moving about 6,000 cubic feet of water per second, down from the average of 10,000 cubic feet this time of year. So we wish our friends upriver warm days and cold nights. We can handle only 41’ down here before the dikes overflow and Main Street becomes a hot spot for canoe rentals.