Tuesday, January 13, 2015

Wilbo Decides to Celebrate Winter and Hunkers Down in His Pad.

The temperature outside has descended to three degrees Fahrenheit. It continues to descend. Today, we enjoyed a cheering afternoon of sunshine and relaxed as the temperature reached a balmy twenty degrees Fahrenheit. We were lulled. I was given optimism that we might have this winter beginning to give up early. After all, I had noticed warm temperatures forecast for the weekend, as high as forty degrees Fahrenheit. I was caught hoping for one of those wimpy winters when even Muskegon Lake didn't freeze and the pond hockey tournaments had to be cancelled. Don't get me wrong. What's cooler than pond hockey? What's more fascinating than watching a shanty town for fishermen show up on Muskegon Lake's ice? Is it wrong to ask for a free pass out of the deep freeze? Well, I suppose I'm unwilling to forgo a few of my favorite observances of winter.

What fun is it to watch my friends leap into a hole chopped into Muskegon Lake if there's slush all over the ice. Our photographers are agog, snapping photo after photo of our lighthouses looking like wizards with out-of-control beards.

A trusty, ready automobile has taken some edge of this winter. The subzero weather can truly reveal the weaknesses in an old automobile. I saw five on the shoulders of I-96 on the return trip from Grand Rapids tonight. So I have been keeping a full tank of gasoline in the Subaru, believing that it will keep my fuel lines from getting slushy. The battery is less than a year old and I had the antifreeze checked for color. I had the fuel pump replaced so it is the first winter on the antifreeze. I am parking my car in a snow bank because the City of Muskegon doesn't allow street parking after 2 AM until March. Needless to say, I am loving the four wheel drive.

I've had to add a few blankets to the bed to keep warm. The pad keeps warm on windless nights, and tonight the deep freeze is not exacerbated by a wind to cause a wind chill. If it were windy, I would have to dress warmer due to the drafty eastern wall of my home. It's not too late to put up plastic over the windows that look east. Although it looks dorky and lessens my pleasure at looking out the window in the morning.

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