The Lamb of Spring

The relentless cold is getting a bit oppressive lately. Early yesterday morning it was –15°F (–26°C) here. In that kind of cold, a little wind can really bite. The wind swirls and the dogs have trouble. Lulu's coat is so thin (here's a post with a picture of Lulu) she can barely make it to the end of the driveway and back without discomfort. I wrap her in a silly-looking doggie coat, but it's her feet that give her trouble first.

Lulu under the electric blanket (iPhone snap)

On the other hand, she loves it under my electric blanket in the wintertime. Toasty doggie.

Speaking of animals, there's an old expression about the month of March—that it "comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb." My favorite quip at this time of year is that the older I get the more I take that as a promise. I'm waiting avidly for the Lamb of Spring, my brother, my sister, and I want it here before April. Witness!

You listenin', March? I want you to come through for me. Every February, my late friend Phil Davis and his wife Martha would decamp from their Michigan estate for three weeks of balmy sunshine in Cabo San Lucas. Phil would have heartily scorned the term "estate," but he owned 95+ acres near Ann Arbor, so what else would you call it? Woods, fields, paths, and a pond, all theirs. In his later years he resolutely fended off the circling developers. He bought the land just after WWII and was still paying his monthly mortgage on it in the '90s—$79 a month rain or shine.

With Phil gone, doubtless the developers have had their paws on it for a while now. No more fields, no more woods.

Phil suffered from SAD—seasonal affective disorder, which is essentially the "winter blahs" times a thousand. Three weeks of Mexican sunshine broke the northern winter in half for him and made it bearable. 

Phil had made most of his money as a professional photographer serving Detroit's automotive industry. A shame that work of his was never collated or collected—I saw some of it, and some of the big dye transfers were remarkably beautiful period pieces.

I'd go to Cabo every winter too if I could. Lacking that opportunity, I'll settle for the promise of that Lamb. What choice have I got? But it better get here before the end of March...like it's supposed to.

Mike

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(To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below.)
Featured Comments from:

Paul richardson: "I'm with you. I live next to Lowell, Massachusetts, and read online yesterday that we've had more snow than any city in the US. And it's been routinely below zero. Throw in a twenty or thirty mile an hour wind and it's a frozen hell. I can't take much more. Nor can anyone else."

David Zivic: "I have lived in Cabo San Lucas for 19 years and in February and March we locals wear long pants and socks and take a jacket to go out in the evenings. Early the other morning I actually turned the heater on in the car, after finding the controls, on the way to early surf fishing. (Sorry, no ice fishing here.) The tourists, on the other hand, are all in shorts and sandals with tank tops, wallowing in the tropical weather. Have a nice day!"

Brendon: "I read this and smiled. I live in Perth, Western Australia, and the same is true here, but just the other way around. The summer heat has been oppressive, and every soul here is begging for autumn! Only +28°C here today, so we have a reprieve, but Tuesday we are expecting 39°C again...the heat drains all inspiration from me too. It is a case of 'inside with the aircon on full blast.' Fingers crossed the lamb arrives mid-March."

latent_image: "Mike, I think this says it all. (For my American friends, +1 is +1 degree Celsius or 1 degree above the freezing point.)"

Mike replies: That's wonderful. Thanks.

Comments

[John Camp]

The people who really know about the end of winter are golfers. You can't play golf until the frost is out of the greens, and after a long winter, you're really anxious to get out there, even if there might be some snow back in the trees. A golfing pal of mine, who also coached a high school golf team, says that in River Falls, Wis. (which is somewhat north of you) you can almost always play golf on April 1, and most years, you can play after the third week of March, even though you can get random snow storms until May. My golf-coach friend said in the last thirty years, there were only three or four years when he couldn't play golf by April 1. Even with late snows, he says the sun is so powerful by the end of March that it simply wipes them away in a day or two.

[Dave Levingston]

Amen!!!

[John Doty]

Of course you must be waiting for the "Cruelest Month" as T.S. Elliot penned in "The Waste Land". April here in northern Vermont lives up to Mr. Elliot's claim, March on the other hand is just a continuation of winter. April is the time of year where we still get snow, the skiing is awful, maple sugaring is done and we are waiting desperately for May to arrive with warmer weather, flowers and signs that winter has truly been banished for another 6 months.

[Keith B]

Mike, You might want to think about ditching the electric blanket. Spending hours enveloped in a pulsed DC electromagnetic field probably isn't good for people....or dogs.
I suggest using a thick goose down comforter or opened-up sleeping bag.
Our dog(a very short haired Dachshund) loves the super-warmth the goose down provides. Note: Please ignore my suggestions as you see fit-- I really shouldn't be offering cold weather advice from here in 65ºF Southern California.

[Michael Matthews]

For the sake of the elder dog's feet, you might want to consider Iditarod booties. No kidding. They all wear them. Booties save sled dogs from a 'feet worse than death' experience. Your temperature and weather conditions are no less severe.

Here's one source: http://www.mtnridge.com/booties.html

I'm sure there are many.

[Stephen Scharf]

I had been thinking just the other that it had been too long since we'd seen pictures of your dogs, and here we have a nice one.

Thank you!

[Dennis]

That's a content doggy ! 25 years ago, my wife and I lived in a small house that used gas heaters in the kitchen and living room. In the kitchen, the stove/heater was about a foot away from the wall. Our cat, Mugsy, would lie behind the stove and absorb the heat until he couldn't take it any more, then crawl out and sprawl across the cooler floor like a puddle.

Now we have radiant heat throughout most of our current house. Our current cat, Shadow, likes to crawl under furniture, lie on the warm floor insulated from above. He doesn't overheat like Mugsy did, but he's pretty spoiled.

[William Schneider]

I'm feeling the winter blues too.

[Rusty]

Daffodils about to bloom, here on the Canadian West Coast...

[Tuomas]

Believe it or not, I'm jealous of you Mike! Finland is supposed to be cold in winter, but all we've had for months now is miserable, wet grayness, temperature circling the freezing point. I'd love some snow and frost!

[steven Ralser]

We're using fleece blankets here in Madison (in our leaky house). They keep us toasty - so much so that we haven't had to put on our heated mattress pad yet this year. I agree, though, Spring would be nice. And don't forget your vitamin D - it seems to help with SAD.

[ctein]

Dear Keith,

Nope, the science doesn't support that. For every study that finds a detrimental effect from such EM fields, there's another that contradicts that. What that almost always means in the scientific process is that "There is no there, there."

pax / Ctein

[Eric Rose]

Having an online business makes it possible to do your work anywhere there is a connection to the internet. Grab your laptop, S and your dogs and go south. I'm taking a cruise soon but my clients won't see any difference since I will have net access on a regular basis.

[Malcolm Leader]

Yea, I live in the Colorado Rockies and we would gladly take every inch of snow and every sub-zero temperature you can send our way. It was 60 degrees today at 7400 feet! We face severe drought and fire danger because the East coast got "our" weather and precip. This will continue according to the experts.

[Jim Bullard]

I live north of the Adirondack park in NY. Earlier this week the weather station on Whiteface Mt. recorded a windchill of -70°. The wind chill here was -21° this morning. I hear February is on track to be the coldest one on record in the NE. I am eagerly awaiting spring.

[Sarge]

In the Philippines, below 20 deg Celsius is considered cold. My favorite time of the year in Manila is from late January to early March when it's dry and balmy, thanks to the tail winds of the NW moonsoon blowing down from Siberia. Further south in my home province Leyte, we only have two "seasons"—the wet and the very wet—where the weather is hot the whole year round. February is also the foaling season for horses and hatching time for birds.

I feel privileged this year that a pair of yellow-vented bulbuls chose to build their nest on a branch of a tree just outside our window. I also encountered my first day-old foal earlier this month.

Yellow-vented bulbul fledglings and their mum. It only rained once since they hatched almost two weeks ago.

Baguio Light Horse mare and newborn foal at a farm in Tagaytay highlands.

[Dan]

Definately look at dog booties. They make a world of difference. Takes the dog a short time to get used to them but they work well and really help the dog. We're in North Dakota along the Canadian border and dog booties help our Lab a lot.
Idatarod and sled dog types use them as they make a big difference in keeping dogs comfortable and healthy.
May take a couple of times for the dog to get used to you putting them on but once familiar it is easy.

[Wayne]

I suffer from SAD as well. People, i.e. friends and those who love me, just do not understand.....I am happy being pissed off about Winter.

[Earl Dunbar]

Rick Mercer is a national treasure.