Althouse: Snow on wires/tree/sign.

December 9, 2009

Snow on wires/tree/sign.

37 comments:

David said...: I always think about what it was like for the Native Americans.; 12/9/09, 5:41 PM
traditionalguy said...: clogrefDavid...If Obama and Gore succeed with their illusion of pollution from Oil, Gas and Coal a/k/a Fossil fuels, then we will all find out.; 12/9/09, 5:45 PM
Ignorance is Bliss said...: Yeah, they had the best of both worlds. All of the beauty, and no driveway to shovel.; 12/9/09, 5:46 PM
chickelit said...: That road looks great for skeeching.; 12/9/09, 5:54 PM
Unknown said...: Very pretty, but that's nice, dry snow. In SE PA, it's nice and wet (you need an umbrella as much as an overcoat) and people would be worried about when the power lines would come down.

David said...

I always think about what it was like for the Native Americans.

You mean the Indians, the mountain men, or the Swedes and Germans who settled there?; 12/9/09, 6:03 PM
Jason (the commenter) said...: These are some great pictures. I love the way fresh snow sticks to everything, muffles sounds, even tastes.; 12/9/09, 6:06 PM
Alex said...: Sarah Palin on ClimateGate:

Sarah Palin asks Obama to boycott Copenhagen; 12/9/09, 6:07 PM
Jason (the commenter) said...: This is a chance for the trees to stretch out their branches and yawn before they go to sleep for winter.; 12/9/09, 6:13 PM
Bruce Hayden said...: Isn't it great that all of the bigwigs around the world are in Copenhagen to discuss doing something about Global Warming, when Massive storm buries central US in snow. The article starts:

CHICAGO (AFP) – A massive storm buried much of the central United States in dangerous ice and snow Wednesday, stranding scores of motorists with massive drifts that shut down major roads and defeated plows.

Strong winds created drifts as high as 15 feet (4.6 meters) as the storm dropped as much as four feet of snow (1.2 meters) in some areas, said Pat Slattery, a spokesman for the National Weather Service.

WV: sketer - thinking of snow, and for anyone who has been skiing as long as I have, this is the name of one of Buddy Warner's siblings (ok, maybe two 'e's in the middle). Buddy Warner was from Steamboat (and thus the name of the mountain there), and skied for the U.S. in, I believe, the 1964 Olympics. He was also on some CU ski teams that won several NCAA championships. Soon after that, he died in an avalanche filming for, I believe, Obermeyer (which makes ski clothing).; 12/9/09, 6:39 PM
Jason (the commenter) said...: Everything's blue, it's like someone spewed a glacier over everything.; 12/9/09, 6:47 PM
Fred4Pres said...: David said...
I always think about what it was like for the Native Americans.

12/9/09 5:41 PM

Yeah, before they got their own casinos things really sucked!; 12/9/09, 6:49 PM
chuck b. said...: Amazing to me. It's a totally different world. I guess the whole idea of building a snowman is kinda passé for you, huh?; 12/9/09, 6:58 PM
ricpic said...: The Alphabet Above

What Zees Tees and Eees and even an aitcH
Wend their way through the wires out of reach.; 12/9/09, 7:17 PM
chickelit said...: I guess the whole idea of building a snowman is kinda passé for you, huh?

I thought Palladian had deflated that notion over Thanksgiving.; 12/9/09, 7:18 PM
Fred4Pres said...: Winter was certainly different for our American Indian and pioneer ancestors of the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, yet they mostly survived it (the occasional Donner Party disasters aside).

They were tougher than us, because they had to be tougher. They also understood that being prepared in spring, summer and fall meant not starving in the winter. It is good for us to remember that when we whine (as we are prone to do). They probably whined occasionally too, but nobody listened.; 12/9/09, 7:34 PM
Elliott A said...: If we had that scene here, we'd be closed down for a month. No plows, no snowblowers, I have the only snowshovel that I know of on my street. It has seen better days, purchased in 1980. Maybe you northerners could just send a couple of fluffy inches to Southeast Virginia. It was in the 70s all day, though windy.; 12/9/09, 8:06 PM
David said...: "You mean the Indians, the mountain men, or the Swedes and Germans who settled there?"

All of them, really. We have it easy compared to all those people.; 12/9/09, 8:19 PM
Jason (the commenter) said...: Fred4Pres: They probably whined occasionally too, but nobody listened.

If someone whined they were weak. If they were weak you could kill them.; 12/9/09, 8:24 PM
Ann Althouse said...: "If we had that scene here, we'd be closed down for a month"

Funny. It doesn't even look like all that much to me.; 12/9/09, 8:36 PM
Charlie Martin said...: Yup, by golly, I think you're right. That's snow, all rightee.; 12/9/09, 8:56 PM
J. Cricket said...: Bruce is absolutely right!!

There could not possibly be global warming -- because it snowed a few inches in Wisconsin.

You're not in any position of actual authority are you Brucey? Gawd help us.; 12/9/09, 9:23 PM
Donna B. said...: Althouse, it doesn't look like that much to me either. Though I now live in Louisiana and that much snow would shut the place down (and I'd love it, LOL!)

I was raised in Colorado and what's pictured was a typical snowfall. Skiing and sledding and hot chocolate... those were the days, my friend.

But what I really loved was visiting our "summer" cabin by snowmobile. Digging 6 feet of snow from the doorway... finally getting a good fire going in the stove...

There were 'not so good' times also, such as the time my Mom, my little sister, and me were stranded on Monarch pass. We had to wait 8 hours or more for snow plows to clear the way. My mother... fearful of carbon monoxide poisoning wouldn't keep the engine running.

But, knowing the possibility of such, blankets and sleeping bags were always in the trunk, along with at least a gallon of drinking water.

Today, even though I live in the South, I always carry a blanket in my trunk. Even in the summer. It's a comfort thing :-); 12/9/09, 9:24 PM
Icepick said...: The best thing about all that snow is that it's far away from here. Heck, I think I'll even wear shorts tomorrow. [ducks, and runs for cover]; 12/9/09, 9:26 PM
kentuckyliz said...: did all the badass indians get the southern real estate and chase the less badass indians to the frozen north?; 12/9/09, 9:36 PM
Wince said...: I noticed a while ago that for some reason physical exertion in fresh snow, whether shoveling or sport, makes me incredibly horny afterward, overcoming any shrinkage factor one might expect due to the cold.

I still don't know why.; 12/9/09, 9:40 PM
Anonymous said...: Picture(s) perfect.; 12/9/09, 9:49 PM
Wince said...: Evidently, I'm not alone.; 12/9/09, 9:50 PM
Unknown said...: Fred4Pres said...

Winter was certainly different for our American Indian and pioneer ancestors of the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, yet they mostly survived it (the occasional Donner Party disasters aside).

Actually not. Pneumonia did a lot of people in. Read about Abraham Lincoln's family and the winter they spent in what they called The Half-Face Camp (basically they wintered in a lean-to). There's also Jack London's story, "To Build a Fire", to give one pause. The mountain men called themselves "hivernants" because they hibernated like the bears; it was the only way to survive.

Ann Althouse said...

"If we had that scene here, we'd be closed down for a month"

Funny. It doesn't even look like all that much to me.

Pioneer woman that you are.

kentuckyliz said...

did all the badass indians get the southern real estate and chase the less badass indians to the frozen north?

Not really. The Six Nations of the Iroquois and the Huron Confederation were as nasty as you could get. Any good history of the French and Indian Wars will curdle your blood (try "A Few Acres of Snow" - I think that's the name).
Except for the Five Civilized Tribes and the Seminoles, the southern Indians were pretty wussy

Further west, the Ojibway ran the Sioux out of MN and WI into the Dakotas, WY, MT, and NE. The Sioux, of course did the same for the Crows, Mandans, Cheyenne, and other tribes.

Of course, for rough and tough, nobody could beat the Comanches who came down from the Wind River in WY and ruled the roost in the southwest. They fought the Cheyenne, Spaniards, and Mexicans to a standstill (this is how the Austins and a lot of other Gringos ended up in Texas, the people in Mexico were scared to death to colonize the place) and drove the Apache and their Navajo cousins out of Texas.

WV "uncle" Formerly occupied by DelFloria's Tailor Shop.; 12/9/09, 10:43 PM
Peter Hoh said...: I guess the whole idea of building a snowman is kinda passé for you, huh?

I can't speak for Madison, but here in the Twin Cities, it was too cold to make a snowman. Snow won't stick to itself when it's 10 degrees.

Tomorrow morning it will be below zero. We'll have frost on the inside of our car windows to match the frost on the outside.; 12/9/09, 11:10 PM
Payperbiz said...: White Christmas literally speaking. I don't want to see Italian furniture in Chicago in white though.; 12/9/09, 11:52 PM
vbspurs said...: The powdery snow on the stop sign. Looks like a fat Buddha.

Cheers,
Victoria; 12/10/09, 1:16 AM
AllenS said...: Even though Tiger Woods lives in Florida, I'll bet it's really cold in his house right now.; 12/10/09, 5:05 AM
Jason (the commenter) said...: One of my earliest memories is of waking up on Thanksgiving morning, opening the front door, and seeing a imprint of the door in a wall of snow. So, no, these pictures don't seem all that terrible to me either.; 12/10/09, 5:25 AM
Paco Wové said...: "HISTORICAL MARKER

Al Gore slept here"; 12/10/09, 6:52 AM
AllenS said...: Just returned from a walk down the driveway to the mailbox and back. Man, it's cold out there. -5º very little wind.; 12/10/09, 7:33 AM
Shanna said...: It's 22 here, and my toes are frozen just from walking into work. I don't know what negative 5 would even feel like!; 12/10/09, 7:50 AM
jfreddd said...: We had "snow white" mountains in the San Francisco Bay Area yesterday. As a PA boy and admire of your fotoz for their melancholie beauty, I must say of your choice of snow-covered wires... yes.

Thanx mucho, vaya con Dios [izzat gud Spanich?] and may Prof. Reynolds continue to link to you [though it won't affect my reading... ]; 12/10/09, 7:39 PM