My wife, the ornithologist

Today was the kind of day we've been dying for up here. The sun was out, and temperatures were rising. Late in the afternoon, the temperature was 50F here (10C). That's warmer, I think, than most places in the region. Didn't see any other places in the U.P. or northern Wisconsin warmer than the 40s.

The weather was nice enough for a walk, and my wife took a walk into town. She came back just as I was getting home from work. We had to run a couple errands, and she told me to take my camera along when we did: "I think there's an owl at the building next to the bank." She said it was whitish gray and was saying "Whoo, whoo."

It was a dream come true. I love snowy owls, but they are very rare in this area--usually they don't range this far south. I think I've only seen one in my life. It was maybe 20 years ago, when we were shooting on Tri-X (black and white negative film). I got close enough to get a picture of him looking at me from atop a post next to a fire hydrant. The next picture was of him flying the other way, white wings outstretched.

I checked the camera before leaving, and I'm lucky I did. When I turned on the camera, the screen said "Batteries exhausted." Fortunately, I had some in the charger upstairs. So with fresh batteries installed, we left for the bank.

We parked in the lot, maybe 100 feet away from the building (it's downtown, next to the highway). I looked over but didn't see anything. Then there was a flash of gray, from the eaves of the house next door to the peak of a roof nearby. There, the big bird sat. I picked up my camera, zoomed in to the max and got a picture. Then I walked a few steps closer. But the owl must have seen--it flapped its wings and flew away.

Well, anyway, I had one owl picture. But it didn't seem right. The owl flew off much more easily than other owls I have seen. It didn't look right, either. Too dark. I was puzzled.

After we got back home, I transferred the files to the computer and took a look. Here is what I saw ...


It's a pigeon. A bloody pigeon! No doubt about it. And the "Whoo, whoo" she heard? It was the pigeon going "Coo, coo."

We had a good laugh about that. We had a nice supper of chicken parmagiana (boy, did I butcher that spelling) and will be watching a movie later on. I betcha some popcorn will be part of the evening as well.

I haven't posted photos for a while, so here are some I got earlier this month. This shot was from early in February, on one of our coldest mornings ...


(I must have been shivering as I took the picture.) Brrr. That cold is long gone now.

During a recent drive to Iron Mountain, it was close to zero, but one of the lakes we passed was alive with ice fishermen. Look at all the cars and sheds on the lake here ...


If you don't know, they make the holes in the ice with an auger. That's what the guy on the left side of this photo is doing.

Once upon a time, a dedicated ice fisherman had to hand-turn the auger. Today, most of them are gas-powered.

These next photos are from last week. Same route, same destination as usual. This one shows how little snow there is on the snowmobile trails--and in the brush next to the trail.

It doesn't take long for that much snow to melt once the sun starts showing its power.

Later, I saw a couple white-tailed deer walking across the road. I stopped a distance away, but they saw me. Luckily, I already had my camera up ...


But once they got in the woods, they seemed to feel safer and turned around as I crept closer ...


They walked deeper into the woods ... and then turned around for another look ...


From there, I went on my way, and presumably so did they.

There have been winters up here when the snow gets very deep and the deer starve. Not this winter. You can see how little snow there is in the woods. I'd venture to say that the deer have it made.

Changes in the wind

"It's been a long, long, long time coming
"But I know a change is gonna come."

I've been thinking about that Otis Redding lyric a lot recently, because I can see some big changes coming to my life in the near future. Actually, most of them are good changes. But change sometimes is scary or at least daunting. Intimidating?

One of the welcome changes comes today. The weather. It's finally going to get above freezing again this week, for the first time since mid-January. That's also how long it's been since we've had measurable snow. The airmass that blew icy winds from the Arctic Circle was mighty cold and mighty dry. Our area doesn't get lake-effect snow, so the prints that cats, crows, meter readers and other prowlers made weeks ago are still there, except in cases where they have been covered up by newer prints by cats, crows, etc.

That--the lack of snow--could be in for a change, too. The wind shifted around to the south late on Sunday, we're getting air from the west, not the north, and I have a feeling our snow drought is going to end soon. It won't happen too soon for snowmobilers. The trails around here are in rough shape. Literally. But if the temperatures get in the 30s and the sun smiles down, the measly four inches of snow we have now won't be long for this world.

Also, my winter sports season just has a few weeks to go. Wrestling season ended over the weekend, and basketball and volleyball are in their final weeks. In another month, the tournaments will be over, and I'll be getting a lot more free time at home. I enjoy the sports, as you know, but it all gets too hectic, and with everything else I'm involved with, it can get become too much.

I've been going at it almost nonstop since late August, and I'd really, really, really like to go somewhere that doesn't involve a meeting, a sports contest, a visit to my mom or other relatives or a funeral.

But my aunt's funeral in early January is the catalyst for the biggest changes. She and her husband never had children, and I heard after the funeral that I'd get some "nickels and dimes" she had accumulated. There are 11 nieces and nephews, and each gets 1/11th of the pie. A nice pie.

The check arrived on Saturday. It's going to bring about some changes.

For example, last week we learned a local furniture store is closing. We had talked on and off in the past about getting a queen-size bed "someday." Someday came last Wednesday. We went to the store, saw something we both liked, and I wrote the check. It arrived Monday morning. Our (very) brave cats timidly stepped upstairs later to see what happened to their favorite daytime hangout (which has been moved to another bedroom).

Later tonight, I'm hoping we can take care of one last bit of unfinished business from V day ... to properly initiate it, you know.

Another big day will be coming in early March. That will be "Liberation Day." It's the day when I line up the credit card bills and methodically write checks to pay off the balances on each one. Once that's done, it will subtract several hundred dollars from the bills I pay each month. Plus no aggravation from high interest rates. Free at last!

Then, in April or May, I will be making the last payment on my car. The balance is only about $550 right now. Once that happens, it's going to save precisely $196.67 each month. My little car, for all its misadventures with deer and lousy drivers, only has 122K on it, and I figure it can keep going for another couple years.

One thing you need to understand is that we've never had much money all the time we've been married. Mine is a low-paying job, and she only worked part-time. So for all the time we've been together, we've scrimped where we could and made do with what we had. Our concept of a vacation involves only a couple nights in motels or else crashing with relatives. Now, maybe we can go on a "real" vacation and stay at a nice motel when out of town. Not worry about a long drive home at night after a long day on the road.

But there will be no spending spree. I've got some things I want to get, and so does she, but our deeply-ingrained habits won't change easily or quickly. When the right time comes--like with the queen-size bed--we will be ready to act.

Then, I think there will be one more change. With my job. My fondest wish is to get rid of the news assignments I took over "temporarily" back in 2002 when another person left. It's a definition of "temporarily" that I've never encountered before.

It provides 75% to 90% of the stress I feel. Make no mistake: The sports is a lot of work and time and evenings away from home, but I'm used to it. The additional work is what's causing my stress--and I want to cut back.

That's a lot of change coming down the road, heading right my way. I think you can see that it's going to be interesting.

Not so sweet V Day

Hi. Well, I hope all you had a great Valentine's Day. Mine, I have to say, left a lot to be desired.

It's just all the crap I usually have to do for work. Usually, it doesn't bother me. Increasingly, lately, it's been getting under my skin.

The bottom line is that on Valentine's Day night, I had to be out of town at the team district wrestling tournament. Don't get me wrong. I like wrestling. It's a fun sport once you understand how it works. The coach is a fun guy who knows his stuff, and the guys on the team are mostly likeably goofy.

But why did the frickin' team district tournament have to be on Valentine's Day? Mainly because Valentine's Day was on a Wednesday this year, I guess. The one night of the week not already taken by other high school sports (here, it's boys basketball on Tuesdays and Fridays, girls volleyball Mondays and Thursdays).

You can't fight city hall. I resigned myself to my fate. So on Tuesday, the 13th, I ordered some flowers and got some cards. They said they'd deliver on Wednesday morning. Fine. She was gone all day Tuesday with her quilters, but when she got back, I told her not to start supper: We're going out. We got in my car and hit the road. I think maybe she was thinking we'd try another pizza place.

Instead, the car kept going across the county--to a steak restaurant about 30 miles away. That's where we ate, and it was a great steak. Then we went home, and the plan was to watch a movie together and then go upstairs for some serious snuggling. That was the plan, anyway.

She selected "Jules and Jim," a French movie from the '60s neither of us had seen before. But it was in French, with English subtitles. She usually doesn't like movies in a foreign language because of the subtitles, so I read them for her. Except in this case, the subtitles were coming so fast most of the time, I was doing good to keep up with them. She put the comforter over our legs--it was already below zero outside--and got nice and warm.

It was an interesting movie, in my opinion, where Jules and Jim, who are good friends, agree to share a woman--the one who married Jules. It gets a little complex, but it was the early '60s and from France, so it's in black and white, and nothing happens on camera except some kissing and hugging. You see them in bed, smoking cigarettes. Back then, of course, people smoked like chimneys.

So I'm reading the subtitles and trying to keep the plot straight in my mind. About an hour into the movie I notice that her breathing is nice and regular and getting a little louder. I looked over. The eyelids were droopy. I stopped the disc, and she went to get herself some tea. It kept her going for a while, but again, near the end of the movie, the same thing.

Well, when she gets tired, she gets tired. A big supper, a warm comforter, a movie that maybe isn't that exciting for her, and that's what happens. She woke up enough to feed the kitties, and then I took her up to bed, where she could sleep in a horizontal position. As for any post-movie passion--not tonight.

Today, back to work. She was home today, and we had lunch together. I noticed at that time that the flowers, promised for the morning, had not arrived. About 2:30, I had to leave for the wrestling tourney, so I stopped at home to say good-bye. No flowers yet, either. What the ...? I sneaked in one of my cards, at least, and she liked it.

Then, on the road. The usual drive on the usual route to the usual destinations, and by myself, as usual. I stopped off to visit my mom for a while and then went to the tournament. Things went a little longer than expected. I tried to call her between matches, but the line was busy.

I finally got out of there about 8 p.m. and went to Hardee's for supper. While waiting for my chicken sandwich, I tried calling her again. This time it rang and rang, and there was no answer. I left a message, telling her my revised estimate of when I'd be getting home.

It was getting cold. Already below zero, as cold as -8F (-22C), according to the car thermometer. I finally got home about 9:20 p.m. She was watching the news on TV, about the big snowstorm in the northeast U.S. I gave her another card and a red plastic heart-shaped thing of M&Ms I had found. We had a few as we watched the news.

But look ... I was tired. A little cold from the trip home. A little achy. A little sad about the wasted day. I certainly didn't feel like playing around. And she knows how I feel after a long, long day, too.

At least the flowers finally arrived. I glanced at them in the kitchen as I took off my jacket. But ... I was worn out. I can look at them tomorrow. They're carnations, so they'll stick around a while.

One bit of unfinished business from St. Valentine's Day (besides that): I noticed that the phone indicates a message that hasn't been played yet.

Hmm, I wonder who that could be? Maybe we'll find out tomorrow.

The icebox mellows

It was touch and go for a while, but I think we're going to survive this cold spell.

It's over a week old already and getting older by the day. The long-range forecast says it's supposed to stay about as cold for at least another week. (Of course, the forecast for the month of February gave us a 50% chance of above normal temperatures ... so take the new forecast with a grain or two of salt.)

At least I noted with a little pleasure that it was warmer here than in Chicago on noon Thursday. Here, the sun was out, and it had gotten all the way up to 15 F (-9C--still colder than normal). When we went to bed Tuesday night, it was still 10 above. And when we got up Friday, it already was above zero. So we're making slow progress. At this rate, we might get above freezing by July.

But on Tuesday, it was just about as cold as it was on Monday. My car started on Monday afternoon, but at noon Tuesday I tried it, and no dice. I tried about 90 minutes later, when I had to head out to an interview, and it was the same thing: It just revved half-heartedly for a few seconds. So after rescheduling the interview, I decided to pull the plug, yield to the inevitable and invest for a new battery. $78.

I've had the car for four years (this April), and the battery I replaced is the one it came with. Odds are, it's the original one, and I was semi-expecting to replace it when the really cold weather arrived. Anyway, I don't have to worry about subzero weather starts any longer this winter. And that's good. It crosses one thing off a long list.

On Wednesday, I did the interview (a local machining firm, giving me the rare and welcome opportunity to use the term "screw machines" in a story) and then went home after work.

I was upstairs, watching something on TV, when I noticed I was feeling cool. So did my wife, who was downstairs, where it's typically cooler, anyway. It was getting cooler. What gives?

It's the igniter on our natural gas furnace, which has given out several times over the years. This last one lasted about six years, but it passed away on Wednesday.

The furnace guy made it to our place at about 7 p.m. (by which time the downstairs temperature was down to about 56F) About 45 minutes and $125 later, we had a working furnace again. The furnace guy said they don't use this kind of igniter in furnaces any longer--furnaces made today use an igniter that is much more reliable. Unlike the one we have now.

Well, what can you do? At least the igniter lasted until the worst of the cold spell was over. Bottom line is, we have a nice warm house again.

Anyway, life goes on. I had volleyball Thursday night, I've got basketball Friday night, and on Saturday we'll make the normal weekend trip to visit my mom. Plus I've got to write some friends. And try to catch up on blog entries.

And I'll also look eagerly for advance word on a wintertime weather warm-up. But I'm not going to hold my breath.

My friend S sounded down when she wrote a few days ago. I tried to cheer her up when I wrote back last night: "The days are getting longer, the sun is getting stronger. It's cold now, but before long the cold will be gone. Winter inevitably will end. It always has, and it always will."

By a waterfall ...

A recent post on Lady Visine's pages reminded me of a trip my wife and I took to one of the high school games I covered last September.

It isn't about the game. It's about a side trip we took, making the most of some nice early fall weather--shirtsleeve weather.

Lady V is talking about moving to Michigan (the far-away SW lower Michigan--believe it or not, it's only 24 miles closer than her SD home) and the topic of waterfalls came up. I mentioned our visit to Bond Falls here in the western U.P. on our way to the game last fall. But when I looked for the pictures, I realized I had never uploaded the pictures or written about it.

Well, there was a lot going on in the fall. So here goes:

My wife agreed to go to the game with me, mainly to enjoy the ride. Getting there is half the fun, you know. Along the way, I saw a sign for Bond Falls, one of the largest waterfalls in the western U.P. The lightbulb came on. I suggested we stop and take a look. She said OK.

So we parked the car and walked down a long path towards the east. We heard the waterfall long before we got there. And then we got there ...


It's nice. My ballpark guess is that it's about 40 or 50 feel tall. They have a nice walkway and some old, somewhat deteriorated concrete steps up the right side. Of course I had to climb them. We were right there, next to the falls, as we climbed ...


Then we got to the very top and looked upstream, at all that cold water heading down the Ontonagon River towards the falls, heading for Lake Superior ...


We enjoyed ourselves there, walking around, looking here and there, taking pictures. Until I glanced at my watch and realized to my shock that the game was going to kick off in less than an hour. So we hustled back to the car, and then I was flying low the rest of the way to the game. We got there just as they were playing the National Anthem. But I got there ...


Ah yes, last September. I think I was wearing shorts and a T-shirt that evening. Today, that area and the entire Upper Midwest is frozen solid in a stream of arctic subzero cold.

But I feel better now. My car is out of hibernation.

Noticing that the temperature has finally nosed above zero F (just barely), I went out about 2:30 p.m. Monday to see if I could persuade my car to start. I had tried starting it Sunday at about noon, just for a lark, as I was walking back home from the office. It revved half-heartedly a couple times, but after about three seconds I turned the key back. No way. Temperatures were about -6F.

Then, at noon today, I tried again. It revved a little faster but didn't turn over. I tried twice for about five seconds total. Then I got out and walked back to the office.

The third time, at about 2:30, was the charm. Now it was above zero (barely, as I said). I turned the key, it revved a couple of times and then ignited. We have ignition! After about two minutes of warming up, we had liftoff, too. I drove around town long enough to warm it up and then went back to work.

It's been a doozy of a cold spell. On Sunday, we got all the way up to -6F (-21C) for a high. That's as warm as it got. Overnight it got down close to -20F. That's -29C, if you're wondering.

My car sleeps outside. The last time I had driven it was Friday, across the county to cover a basketball game. That was the night the cold wave hit. I didn't try to start it all day Saturday.

We had done our pre-cold wave shopping trip Thursday, so we were pretty well stocked for a few days of arctic weather. When I got back home Friday night, I parked the car so that it was facing the south and any solar energy we might get. Every little bit helps. Better than facing the north and the wind coming from Arctic Circle.

I was able to let the car hibernate for a few days because (If you don't know), I live less than a block from the office. That makes life much less complicated for me when nasty winter weather strikes. It also means that no matter what the weather or how I feel, I'm going to be in the office.

Sunday night, my wife and I watched the Super Bowl. I was rooting for the Bears (from the Packers' division; I know some other Packers fans may be aghast), but I was realistic about their chances, and the outcome of the game didn't surprise me.

But my feet got cold during the game. Today, I was OK. That's because I dressed for the occasion. Here is the inventory:

1. Light cotton socks. 2. Heavy socks. 3. Normal shoes. 4. Underwear (briefs, if you're interested). 5. Gray, long thermal underwear. 6. Normal cotton khaki pants. 7. A T-shirt. 8. A heavy gray-blue knit sweater. Add to that my heavy fall coat and the heavy knit hat and gloves my wife gave me for winter, and I was equipped.

Not that I enjoy dressing that way. I was just looking at those pictures from Bond Falls and thinking how much I'm looking forward to dressing for summer. Then my attire consists of 1. Light socks. 2. Athletic shoes or sandals (in case of sandals, cross out #1). 3. Underwear (usually; not always). 4. Shorts. 5. A T-shirt.

That's about it. And, given the right circumstances and company, I'd be quite happy without No. 2, 3, 4 and 5, too.

Not for a while, though.