Thursday, 9:40 am: Another cold night, and tonight is supposed to be colder. Winter life in northern Maine is about bundling up, staying warm and still getting things done. Monday morning, Van Buren Maine was the coldest spot in the Lower 48 States. According to the NWS, the low temperature was -34° [F.], or -36.6° [C.] for readers who think metric. The Van Buren town line is about one mile from our house. What they get, we usually get. Our low was only -23.5° [F.]. But records are designed to be broken. Unfortunately my weather data is unofficial, but still accurate.

The repairman was just here to pick up our snowblower. If it has more than ten moving parts it’s beyond my mechanical capabilities. Now I have to find our low-tech snow scoop, which has no moving parts, just in case he can’t get it repaired very soon. Low-tech means lots of labor intensive work. Oh boy!

And it’s time to get motivated to bring in more firewood for today. Unlikely as it may seem, it is actually easy. Now if I can only convince myself it’s fun. Until then I’ll be nuking a left-over blueberry muffin in the microwave accompanied by a cup of espresso brewed the traditional way.

Current values from our wireless Davis Vantage-Pro weather station:

Temperature: -5.4° [F.]

Barometer: 30.057 & steady

Humidity: 59%

Wind: NW at 1 mph light & variable

Visibility: > 3 miles

Skies: Generally clear with a few scattered clouds

Precipitation: light dusting of snow - none measurable

Since midnight:

Low temperature: -14.4° at 5:05 am

High wind: 11 mph at 12:06 am

Tuesday, 1:15 pm: We have had some very cold days and nights the past few days. Old Man Winter has been working overtime in northern Maine, probably elsewhere too. My personal hardiness is elusive when it is this cold. It’s generally elusive anyway. We have our car’s block heater plugged in to the electrical outlet in our garage. We need to keep all those oil molecules fluid. Congealed oil isn’t necessarily good when driving a car.

Extra firewood has been the order of the day to keep our woodstove burning a little warmer. At over $3.00 per gallon for heating oil, I am very happy we heat with wood. I have to admit the price of wood keeps going up each year, but it is significantly less then heating oil price increases.

Somewhere in today’s writing I have a disconnect between my thoughts and what appears on my computer monitor, and what eventually goes into this blog. Good ideas seem to fall by the wayside [what I forget]; and I type what is leftover [what I remember]. I guess I need to take notes sometime. Good ideas are fleeting and my personal brilliance isn’t necessarily dazzling. Those Sturm und Drang issues! Oh well. My wife has made some blueberry muffins and hot cocoa, which can resolve some mental roadblocks, which today is an obstacle course. Ciao!

Current values from our wireless Davis Vantage-Pro weather station:

Temperature: 9.5° [F.]
[Temperatur]

Barometer: 30.046 & falling rapidly
[Druck]

Humidity: 73%
[Feuchtigkeit]

Wind: Calm
[Geschwindigkeit]

Visibility: ½ mile

Skies: 100% overcast

Precipitation: Currently snowing
[Niederschlag]

Since midnight:

Low temperature: -23.2° [F.]

High wind: 7 mph at 11:20 am

Thursday, 9:40 am: After a few false starts, I am once again trying to write today’s blog. This morning our dogs seem to want to go in and out more than usual. It’s cold and their time outside is limited, then it’s back inside again, then the cycle repeats itself. We have cold-weather dog booties, but when we try to put them on their feet they act like we are trying to tickle them and they bounce around the room like it‘s a game. After awhile we give up - they win.

Aside from this morning’s canine adventures, the storm that hit us a few days ago was less than expected. Other areas south of the Saint John Valley received much more snow then we got. It’s a rough life, we’re still eating Ruth’s emergency cheesecake. More snow is predicted for tomorrow.

Our friends Don and Diane in Saint Agatha Maine lost power yesterday. A power pole's guy anchor was hit and voilà part of town was blacked out for over a hour until a replacement pole [see photo below] was installed by MPS.

St. Agatha, Maine --- photo contributed by Don Elrich

Listening to the news on the radio has become grueling with so much coverage for people who want to “change” the way Government works, and of course they have a better plan than the other guy, regardless of party. Not endowed with idealistic fervor, I am skeptical. All candidates are wonderful and they all have great hopes and plans. Let’s see, I’ve given equal “Bah humbug!” to all. My wife is also saturated with political news. She is in the “wait and see mode”. Ruth complains much less than me. And she has more sense then I have; she turns the radio off, saying it’s bad for her health. I wish I would have thought of that.

Current values from our wireless Davis Vantage-Pro weather station:

Temperature: 6.4° [F.]

Barometer: 30.39 & slowly falling

Humidity: 71%

Wind: Calm

Visibility: > 3 miles

Skies: Clear

Precipitation: None

Since midnight:

Low temperature: -2.7° [F.] at 7:57 am

High wind: 10 mph at 12:35 am

Monday, 11:00 am: We are expecting more snow this afternoon or evening. Looking at the NWS radar on their web site we may be in for a lot of snow. There is a possibility it might miss us and slide off to the east and pummel New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. However, we’re braced for the worst; filling up our firewood rack and topping off our snowblower. Always on the alert, Ruth is baking our emergency cheesecake. That’s our basic emergency ration, in case of severe weather. Life is unpredictable, but good food doesn’t need to be included. I’ll pass on Siberian "gulag" cuisine.

Our drive into Presque Isle yesterday went smoothly. The stores were packed with Canadian shoppers. Their strong dollar makes shopping, on our side, a good value for them, and problems finding a parking space for us. I heard lots of French spoken yesterday - Mais Oui!

Our neighbor just left. He was here using our landline telephone trying to set up his voice mail with his cell phone company. Apparently this time he was successful after a few technical glitches on previous attempts. It’s an adventure in technical support when his call goes to Juan [really!] in a call center outsourced to an undisclosed country. I suspect it is not Pakistan this time.

Current values from our wireless Davis Vantage-Pro weather station:

Temperature: 11.6° [F.]

Barometer: 30.176 in & falling rapidly

Humidity: 70%

Wind: Calm

Visibility: < 3 miles

Skies: 100% overcast

Precipitation: None

Since midnight:

Low temperature: -1.2° [F.]

High wind: 2 mph at 7:34 am

Monday, 11:00 am: The thaw continues and the fog has rolled in. Unlikely at it seems; it’s raining in northern Maine in January. I recently heard someone call it “June-uary”. Whatever it is; it is unseasonable. Earlier this morning it was raining so hard we heard it hitting on our roof. The melting snow has made our walkways very slippery. Melting snow and rain makes an unusual combination. Staying upright, when walking, is a problem. I’ll stay inside and keep my brains and bones intact.

Today's fog

Meanwhile I am listening to music on Internet radio - Radio Memories. A, not so unique, name for an oldies station from Hamburg. Buddy Holly’s music is bouncing its way around the world from their studio via fiber optics and satellite into my computer. Rock on!

More fog

Our friends Don and Diane have installed a new Davis Vantage-Pro 2 weather station at their home in Saint Agatha Maine. After an initial problem with the station’s consol, which was quickly replaced by Davis, everything is in working order and data is being uploaded to Weather Underground every ten minutes.

Cleverly I’ve crossed my Ts and dotted my Is and stuck in assorted punctuation here and there. My college education wasn’t in vain.

Current values from our wireless Davis Vantage-Pro weather station:

Temperature: 43.4° [F.]

Barometer: 29.858 & steady

Humidity: 98%

Wind: Calm

Visibility: < 100 yards

Skies: 100% low overcast - heavy fog

Precipitation: .11 inch - rain

Since midnight:

Low temperature: 37° [F.] at 12:59 am

High wind: 5 mph at 6:17 am

Monday 10:00 am: The January thaw seems to have set in. Using the word “thaw” is misleading, because the temperature is only in the 30s [F.]. In relative terms, it’s warmed up, but it is still jacket weather. Considering the low temperature just a few nights ago, it’s warmed up over 50 degrees: January 5th is was down to -21.1° [F.].

Yesterday our neighbors, way back in the woods, slogged out of their cabin on snowshoes and visited us for a few hours. They are truly hardy souls; no electricity, a hand pump for water and a wood cooking stove. However, they do recharge batteries with solar panels and have a cell phone. They are living examples of the pioneer spirit. I like electricity when it comes out of the outlets in the walls. Click, it’s on.

Well this television writers’ strike is getting old. Reruns are fine when they are years old, but not just a few months old. The Daily Show and the Colbert Report have disappeared from Comedy Central. Where am I supposed to get my glibly [un]biased view of the world now? I guess I have to resort to “real” news which is less interesting and far less entertaining. I thought life is supposed to be mostly entertaining, but I guess not. My attention span must be too short. It’s espresso time for us.

Current values from our wireless Davis Vantage-Pro weather station:

Temperature: 35.3° [F.]

Barometer: 30.029 & steady

Humidity: 87%

Wind: SW at 5 mph light & variable

Visibility: > 3 miles

Skies: Overcast

Precipitation: None

Since midnight:

Low temperature: 34.7° [F.] at 7:14 am

High wind: 11 mph at 5:31 am