January 2008 Winter Snows Arrive

January 20, 2008

Dear Family & Friends,

We've had a very wintery week here in Greensboro, NC!! The forecast for last week was quite alarming to me, as I really don't care for the really cold weather (well, I don't care for any cold weather to be quite honest), but it didn't turn out to be quite as unpleasant as it could have been. A cold front moved in and stayed stalled over North Carolina for several days, moderating a bit for an hour or so now and then, but the nights got down to the freezing-near-freezing point several nights in a row. Then the precipitation moved in, heralded (for those who know to watch the moon) by a beautiful rainbow halo around the moon on Friday.

I'm tempted to start a study on what types of precipitation fall when the moon gets haloed, and how soon, based on the diameter of the halo, distance from the moon, and characteristics (simple halo, halo with white haze filling space between it and the moon, rainbow effect, and no halo but with large white, fuzzy nimbus around moon). Maybe someone has already done it, but I've no clue where to find such a study. The other thing that was of noteworthy mention, was about two weeks ago on a Wednesday night when I was driving home from Prayer Meeting at Charity.

The moon was full, over my left shoulder, and as I took a look at it, my eyes caught what looked like a bright white streak nearly touching the moon on the lower, right area. When I got home, I went into the back yard to examine this unusual sighting a little more closely, took my digital camera with me and pointed it at the moon, zooming in as tight as it would go. There was definitely a large white tick next to the moon, and I took a few pictures, and talked with a couple moon-watching friends about whether they had noticed and could explain. Nothing in our experience gave us any good answers, but someone else who moon-watches must have emailed the local weather station, because the next night there was an explanation for this phenomenon which quite a few of us star-gazers must have noticed and remarked upon. The explanation was that Saturn's orbit had come so very close to that of the moon's that its sun-reflecting glow had cast light on the rings of Saturn, and what we saw as an asymmetrical streak was actually part of Saturn's rings being illuminated by the glow of the moon. There was a diagram of the same phenomenon in the paper that Sunday, which I saw because the Barbers were out of town but the newspaper boy didn't stop delivering when he was supposed to. So, my curiosity was assuaged, and I learned something quite interesting to boot!

Back to this past week...on Thursday, I woke up to snow everywhere I looked, but the sun was shining. Evidently the snow had fallen during the night, heavily but quietly because I never heard it start. The temperatures stayed cold enough that most of the snow stayed where it had fallen all day, but I didn't even get out in it until much later in the afternoon, because I just didn't want to risk the crazies who drive in total disregard for weather traveling conditions no matter what the type of precipitation. The temperatures didn't get much above freezing all week for highs, and stayed in the low 20's overnight, so there was the definite risk of black ice to be wary of. That always strikes a note of fear in my heart, primarily because I've had two bad accidents as a result of hitting black ice, but also because so many folks just don't pay attention, don't slow down, and won't keep a very safe distance away from other cars in their lanes, all of which makes for dangerous driving even when the actual risks are not severe.

Saturday was the good day, however, except for it being mostly overcast and really cold. I woke up to the sight of a steady drift of snow lazily falling from the sky like tiny feathers from a multitude of angelic wings getting brushed out for the winter. As you know, I really don't like snow either, nothing against snow itself, but against the nasty traveling/driving conditions which can result from it. So, this was a very special snow indeed for me to stand in the doorway watching it float down. This wasn't heavy-rainfall-type of snow that you can almost feel pelting down on the earth; it was this fairy-light, feathery-soft drift of snow, no wind to blow it around, so it just simply "sifted" lightly downward. Oddly, I noticed that the rate was very sedate, and the spread was quite uniform: no heavy patches interspersed with light patches, but very uniform in size and dispersion, like a very soft, drizzly, soaking rain. With such a beautiful snow to enjoy watching, I decided to call my sister-in-law, Sherrie, and share the beauty with her, because she really enjoys snow. I wanted to simply stay indoors, bundled up and read a good book by firelight...except we can't use our fireplace, so I contented myself with sitting in the front room and relaxing on the couch with a book.

Today, and arctic wave blew in and the overnight low wasn't even in the teens, and we barely cleared the freezing point for our high. There are supposed to be several more days of this very nippy weather, with daytime highs not expected to beat the freezing point by much, and overnight lows not expected to break out of the teens. To be safe, I brought all my cacti plants into the house on Friday night, so they don't get frozen to death. Last year, my prized collection of cacti (which I had collected and raised for nearly a decade), was decimated by the foul, freezing, bizarrely harsh weather that the Fort Worth, TX area suffered under the entire winter. My former roommate (she took in a stray friend who got into a shotgun divorce) had written to tell me the sad news that all my cacti had died as a result of the heavy freezing rains, sleet, ice and harsh weather they had suffered.

Well, when I drove to Texas in late October to register/license my "new" Toyota Sequoia (2003), I went to her house to see the destruction, and clean up things. Much to my surprise, I found several well-preserved survivors who had even had the gumption to produce babies over the process of their recovery during a moderate Texas summer and fall. So, I cleaned up the detritus and rescued the most easily transplanted of the survivors, taking all the babies that had been produced to start my own nursery here in Greensboro, and left a few of the larger surviving specimens to see how they will make it through another mid-Texas winter this year.

With those that I rescued from TX, my cactus collection now has 15 adolescent/mature plants, and a nursery with 10 babies from the barrel cactus group, and two specimens of the pinecone cactus variety. Most of my plants have been found here in NC, so they aren't as interesting as the varieties that were in my original collection (which was comprised solely of varieties purchased in Arizona), but I enjoy them anyway. and probably won't be bringing more of those special specimens from AZ into my home until I have a permanent place to keep them in Arizona. They do OK here, but I can't leave them outside in my flower gardens because it's too wet when we get so many days of rain in a row. Of course, we had a drought this year, but I kept them on the porch anyway because I was never sure when it would rain and didn't want them getting drowned. Since cacti like it dry, the drought didn't affect them at all, and they all gave me gorgeous blooms to enjoy when the roses weren't doing so well.

The job search continues...I haven't heard back from any of the three that I now have an interest in (NC, NE & VT), but we can continue to pray and trust the Lord to provide. Will keep you informed of what transpires next.

Love,

Debbie