Blog Notes: Under Weather

I'm a little under the weather and need to take a couple of days off.

That's "under the weather" in two ways—I'm a bit ill and draggin', and also we're in the midst of a fine, fine snowstorm! It's only the second appreciable snow of the Winter.

The hearth, such as it is. The auditorium chairs you see on the right were taken out of a Masonic Hall about fifty miles from here when the Hall was remodeled...in 1910. They were 60 years old by that time...167 now. They're made of cast iron (painted a dark red that the camera can never quite see) and laminated wood. Still serviceable and sturdy—and kinda steampunk, too.  

This storm is nothing like the snows of my youth—when I walked to school through four feet of snow uphill both ways—but it's a proper Winter-wonderland snow. Swirls and whorls of wind, soft powder everywhere, a semi-whiteout. Just lovely; I'm enjoying it very much. Of course I have a fire going in my little gas Franklin stove, back in the otherwise-unheated family room that used to be a one-car garage.

The Winter of '16–'17: better late than never.

It is a challenge to play fetch with a white dog in a snowstorm. Just sayin'.

I hope to be back up and running again by later this week. I'll Tweet when the next new post goes up—follow me at @TheOnlinePhotog.

—The Proprietor AKA Mike

Original contents copyright 2017 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

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

Jim Bullard: "I know you were joking, but I really did walk to school uphill both ways. I went to a one-room country school for the first six grades. It was a mile and a half away and there was a very large hill between our house and the school. It literally was uphill (halfway at least) both ways.  :-)  "

Tuomas: "What a wonderful image with the powder snow and gas light going and everything, a vivid mental picture. All the more since we're not getting our usual quota of snow here in Finland, alas, and I do miss it. Trust Mike to write a great little post on how he's not going to write any posts for a while.  :-)  "

Mike replies: Heh. Thanks for the cheering words Tuomas.

Steve Mason: "There's also nothing like the pure joy of enjoying snow through a dog's unabashedly good time leaping and rolling in it!"

Mike replies:

Lost

Found!

Comments

[John]

Hope you feel better soon. I'll use the time to figure out how you can walk uphill BOTH ways...

[SteveW]

Hey Mike, what a great idea to hunker down and enjoy the white-out. No creature is better assisting with such enterprises than a dog! Fire...dog...book...nap...repeat. Take care, and I hope you feel better soon.

[DavidB]

There have been numerous reports of snowfall rates of 5-6" per hour with totals of 12 to 16 inches. Enjoy your storm!

Here is a link to satellite data from the newest NOAA satellite. It's still going through it's checkout phase and is not yet operational.

NOAA/NESDIS satellite data

[Davd L.]

Another red chair photo coming soon?

[Ben Rosengart]

My son, like Jim, goes to school on the other side of a substantial hill. Usually we take the bus, but today we missed it. Fortunately, he was game for a hike.

[Jeff]

Hope those aren't valuable books (and photos) subject to direct sunlight.

[Eric Erickson]

Mike, first I do hope you feel better. I like your comment about the snow. I live in Columbus, Ohio and we rarely get much snow. We only got a dusting with this last storm. I, like you, really like a good snow for a lot of reasons. Most of which are photo opportunities and natural beauty that come with a storm. Many of my friends run to Florida in the winter and can't understand how I can enjoy winter as I do. Maybe it's my Swedish heritage but there is nothing like the magic of a winter day. Enjoy your fine snow, and get healthy.

[Geoffrey Heard]

Mike, sorry you ar missing heat -- there is a lot of heat in the flue on such stoves. You would be better to have the flue INSIDE and existing out the ceiling. At present, that heat is just going outside to melt the snow!

What's the problem with the white dog in snow? It is going to come home, isn't it (for a bit of red meat). Throwing a white ball for the dog to chase might be a bigger problem! LOL.

All the best with the internal "under the weather" -- look forward to hearing from you when you recover.

Cheers, Geoff

[MikeR]

Mike, I like, and covet, your house. Also, your geographic location.

Btw, the so-called "blizzard" here in SE PA wasn't. It looked like NMT 6" of snow+sleet. My neighbor and I gave our jointly-owned Honda brute-force tractor-tread snowblower a workout. (300 feet of driveway, two driveways.)

Get well, be well, stay well.

[Stephen Scharf]

Right there with ya...I got sick last Wednesday and am still sick a week later (my doc says its "parainfluenza"), so I can't get out to enjoy the 70°+ sunny weather we're presently having in Northern California.

Feel better soon.

[Eric Peterson]

Weather counts as a spectator sport!

[K.Voigt]

if you burn wood or coal in that stove, the installation is not up to code. (if it's just gas it might be OK, not sure)...just sayin

[It is gas (on a remote control no less!) and it meets code. There is a catalytic converter just the other side of the wall. --Mike]

[scott kirkpatrick]

I understand the blizzard headed up your way after failing to land much of a blow in NYC. Looking forward to the pictures.

[Saul Molloy]

Live in a wood and have a gas fire? How strange...

[Jack]

Hope you kick the crud to the curb asap, Mike.

I hate being sick, so I just don't do it. At least I succumb infrequently.

Another benefit of a healthy diet is a stronger immune system.

My daughter has never missed any school due to illness, and she's now on the downhill side of her penultimate year of high school.

She can't make grandiose claims of arduous treks to school, though. We live 200 yards from all her schools. And the sidewalk is flat as a flitter each way.

Cheers

[Eric Perlberg]

I take it you're currently home bound? I'm currently fascinated by the work of Yuval Noah Harari, a macrohistorian, nothing to do with photography. I suggest a 15 minute YouTube video in which Harari outlines a. Few of his main ideas. He's an engaging speaker. https://youtu.be/YZa4sdIwV04

If you find that interesting, Harari has a 17 lesson 62 video YouTube course (he's a history professor at Hebrew University) from which he created his international best seller; Sapiens. http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLfc2WtGuVPdmhYaQjd449k-YeY71fiaFp

[Thanks for this Eric. I wanted to read "Sapiens" but found it heavy going. I'll check these out. --Mike]

[Michael Kellough]

"I have a fire going in my little gas Franklin stove, back in the otherwise-unheated..."

Does the gas stove put out enough heat to make the room comfortable?

[More than. You can't leave it on continually except in the very coldest weather. And this is my second Winter here and we haven't yet had weather cold enough to warrant running the stove for more than 3-5 hours at a time.

BTW to Geoffrey, the flue leads right to a catalytic converter box on the side of the house, just the other side of the wall from the stove. --Mike]

[Herman Krieger]

In my younger days-

[Tom Hassler]

Sympathies to all our east coast friends who are having to deal with this late-season storm. For those of you who didn't get much snow this year, take comfort in knowing that it all apparently came here to the Pacific Northwest! We have broken all sorts of records this year. Twelve inches of snow in downtown Portland (I've lived here since 1990 and never seen anything like that.) The state hydrologists have recently had to abandon measuring the snow pack in the Cascade mountains because it's now too deep for any of their gauges...

[Bill Mitchell]

Hope that you don't die, even though you may feel like you're about to.

[Jake]

Dog? What dog? Where?

[James]

Hi Mike,
I really did walk uphill both ways to grade school when I lived in London England. Up Sydenham Hill then down Kirkdale to school, and up Kirkdale then down Sydenham Hill to home.
Sydenham Hill was a serious climb for a little kid.

It seems you get more little illnesses since you moved away from Wisconsin - too much fresh air where you are now perhaps?
Hope you feel better soon.

[Sara Piazza]

Sympathies, rather, to those of us who, instead of snow, as promised, got rained out. I love snow - for so many reasons, including: it changes everything - from the landscape to the way we move (or not) through our day. We got gipped this year. I don't even mind a sick day (within reason). A sick/snow day doesn't sound half bad. Cheers.

[Michael]

To deal especially with winter ailments I have two little words for you: Vitamin D. Recent meta-analysis published here in the UK shows that it works where Linus Pauling used to imagine vitamin C worked. It sure does it for me.

Beautiful stove! Beautiful room! Beautiful place altogether!

[Chris Kern]

I like the room.

I have this theory that photographers are good at creating interior spaces because we see them as lines, shapes and shadows (and, when we photograph them, correct, as may be necessary, for keystoning). Not certain my wife agrees—she sometimes accuses me of having ‟a tin eye”—but notwithstanding her critical commentary, she rarely changes things around in a room after I've arranged them. So I'm guessing she does concur with what I've done but is reluctant to admit it.

Anyway, that’s my story, and I’m sticking with it.

[Bill Mitchell]

I'm pleased that you seemed to have survived. I had "it" three weeks ago, and despite my obituary running through my thoughts, somehow lived through it.
Now the pollen season is upon us, and I'm setting a new world record for mucus production.
If it ain't one thing, it's always something else.

[Eolake]

A good way of following a site like TOP is blogtrottr.com