Scales

Can you tell the difference between 80°F and 81°F?  Yeah neither can I.  Anything above 95°F is just hot.  Same thing below 0°F, that’s bitterly cold.  Does it matter how far below zero the temps go?  How can you have a negative temperature?  Okay, I don’t want to go down that road.
 
Having accurate temperatures and records is important so I guess we need to keep the Fahrenheit and Celsius scales.  But let me recommend a new temperature gauge.

Anything below 0°F:         inescapable cold

0°-15°F:                          running cold:  run between building and cars quickly
16°-40°F:                        Winter normal:  manageable with lots of hot chocolate
41°-60°F:                        Spring and Fall normal:  starting to get comfortable
61°-85°F:                        Summer ahhs:  perfect temps
86°-95°F:                       +humidity = uncomfortable
95°F and above:               inescapable heat

It makes the temperature more descriptive doesn’t it?  Whatever temperature you are in, enjoy it.

Pack out what you pack in.

 

After the Winter

After the Winter
Claude McKay

Some day, when trees have shed their leaves

And against the morning’s white
The shivering birds beneath the eaves
Have sheltered for the night,
We’ll turn our faces southward, love,
Toward the summer isle
Where bamboos spire to shafted grove
And wide-mouthed orchids smile.

And we will seek the quiet hill

Where towers the cotton tree,
And leaps the laughing crystal rill,
And works the droning bee.
And we will build a cottage there
Beside an open glade,
With black-ribbed blue-bells blowing near,
And ferns that never fade.

From:  Black Nature:  Four Centuries of African American Nature Poetry, Edited by Camille T. Dungy, ©2009 by the University of Georgia Press, Athens, GA

 

Temperature

In order to understand how temperatures are measured you have to understand thermal equilibrium (impressive words huh).  Basically, when you put a hot object next to a cold one, the heat from the hot object will transfer to the cold object making both objects warm.

That’s exactly what happens to a thermometer.  The mercury inside (in the old days we used mercury) rises and falls when it is heated or cooled.

Gabriel Fahrenheit came up with his scale in 1724.  He measured boiling water at 212 degrees, and then he adjusted the freezing point at 32 so the interval would be 180.  That is the cool thing about inventing stuff.  You get to set the scale where ever you want.  Gabriel was also the first guy to use mercury in his thermometer.

Just like every other invention, Fahrenheit’s scale was improved upon in 1745 by Carolus Linnaeus.  He invented a centigrade scale making 0 when water freezes and 100 when it boils.

Centigrade and Celsius are about the same thing but don’t let the scientists hear you say that.  Both Fahrenheit and Centigrade scales are widely used today.  Watch the notation behind a temperature closely because the scales are very different.

Fahrenheit and Centigrade are good scales to measure the temperature but arctic fronts in January will always to cold.  Frigid even.  BRRR.

Pack out what you pack in.

 

Sources:

Website:  http://eo.ucar.edu/skymath/tmp2.html

Overkill

Sometimes I wonder how the settlers survived without 24 hour weather channels.  I’ve been told for the last five days that an arctic cold front will come through.  As I write this it’s January in Wisconsin.  It’s going to get cold.  Duh.

I’ve never been a fan of the production we make over the weather.  Please don’t get me wrong, I appreciate the work a meteorologist puts into studying the science of weather.  As my past blogs show there is a lot to learn about weather.

Knowledge is a good thing.  Being beaten over the head with that knowledge is not.

The producers of news programming are just looking for ratings.  I get that, but I am tired of seeing reporters in front of salt piles every time it snows.

Would I be one of those who rides out a hurricane?  I don’t think so, but I don’t run to the grocery store to stock up on bread and milk every time the weather guy tells me a winter weather advisory will be in place next week Thursday.

It’s important to be safe.  That’s why I wouldn’t hang out in the middle of a hurricane.  And why I get to the lowest place of my home when the tornado sirens go off.  I slow down when I drive in the snow.  Common sense stuff.  Too bad the news folks can’t figure that out.

Pack out what you pack in.

Winter Poem

Winter Poem
Nikki Giovanni

once a snowflake fell

on my brow and i loved
it so much and i kissed
it and it was happy and called its cousins
and brothers and a web
of snow engulfed me then
i reached to love them all
and i squeezed them and they became
a spring rain and i stood perfectly
still and was a flower

©1972 from My House.  Reprinted by permission of the author.

Bird Bath

In addition to food birds like water, for drinking, as we all do, but also for bathing, as we all should.

Watching the birds splash around can be just as entertaining as watching them eat.  If you live in a place where it snows you might think about putting up a heated bird bath.  Birds that don’t migrate, like cardinals, would appreciate it.

A couple of books I read suggested that birds are more attracted to moving water then stagnant.  They gave simple ways to provide moving water without a full blown fountain.  If you don’t have the yard space or the money for all that a simple basin on a stand is better than nothing.

Just like feeding though if you’re going to start you need to keep it up.  The birds will depend on that water being there.

That’s why bird watching is such a great hobby.  You have the responsibility of a pet, food and water every day, but you don’t have to clean up after them and they don’t smell up the house.  Unless you decide to get a little parakeet but that’s a blog for another day.

Pack out what you pack in.

Sources:

Common Birds of North America, Midwest Edition by James D. Wilson, Will Creek Press, Minocqua, WI ©2001

Backyard Bird Watching for Kids by George H. Harrison, Willow Creek Press, Minocqua, WI ©1997

Secret Unveiled

I found a wonderful little secret.  Lapham Peak State Park has a stage where they showcase local performers.  My friend’s daughter and her daughter’s boyfriend sang on that stage on a cool Friday night last summer.  It was wonderful.  All the groups that performed were very talented.  Not all of them had the same polish but that was part of the fun.

The stage was simple wood planks.  The Park had set up some flood lights.  Not very attractive to the people on stage but at least the audience could see them.  We brought chairs and blankets to sit on; some had coolers with dinner inside.  There was a small concession stand that sold soda, candy and freshly made popcorn.

The sun set while the performers were on stage.  Three hours later we helped each other pick up the chairs and blankets, sharing favorite moments from the night.  I enjoyed the whole evening.  I could not pick one thing to be the best part.

Some state and county parks provide more than a get away from the concrete jungle.  Google your local state or county park to see what surprises they can offer you.

Pack out what you pack in.