Wannaskan Almanac

  Today is our 12th wedding anniversary. Jacqueline Helms and I were married outdoors in a small woodland north of our little farmhouse on Mikinaak Creek, about two o’clock in the afternoon, with Teresa McDonnell officiating; her husband Joe McDonnell freezing.   We had warned everyone on our guest list to dress warm for the occasion, for forecasts of December 31st, in Roseau County, Minnesota, are usually frigid and we didn’t expect anything else. High temps were  to be in the single digits Fahrenheit, with 20 mph wind gusts that insured brisk double-digit negative wind chills -- so we weren’t disappointed.   Ever vigilant against the real threat of hypothermia, the bride wore a smart form-fitting black snowmobile suit with vented bodice and midriff, reflective red piping along the top of the sleeves; a rabbit-fur lined purple Minnesota Vikings bomber hat adorned her head protecting her ears and forehead from possible frostnip; wool felt-lined purple Sorel boots and...

And here is the Wannaskan Almanac for Word-Wednesday, December 30, 2020, the 53rd Wednesday of the year, the second Wednesday of winter, and the 365th day of the year, with 1 day remaining. Wannaska Nature Update for December 30, 2020 This is how Ruff Grouse stay warm. Nordhem Lunch: Closed. Earth/Moon Almanac for December 30, 2020 Sunrise: 8:17am; Sunset: 4:36pm; 53 seconds more daylight today Moonrise: 5:03pm; Moonset: 8:58am, waning gibbous Temperature Almanac for December 30, 2020                 Average            Record              Today High             15                     35              ...

 Social media...it is a bastion of free speech (as long as you say and think what big brother wants you to say and think).  It is on social media that you can post pictures of your newborn child (Mary, hold him still...and get those shepherds out of here...this one is for his grandfather) or describe in great detail your political beliefs with nary a hint of censorship. Of course, that last half of the last sentence is a huge lie.  It is like the people at Facebook, twitter, and google have never read 1984 or the constitution.  But that is not what this little rant is about.  Today's blog is about trending...specifically what occurred in the last couple of weeks.  Recently a post about a quarterback was "trending".  Trending is when a lot of people are liking and reposting something.  This particular post was describing how this quarterback was a "warrior" for playing in a meaningless game while dealing with an injury. I won't go into the specific...

  28 Dec 20     Ars Poetica / The Art of Poetry - #1 . . . A poem should not mean But be Archibald MacLeish from Ars Poetica NOTE : This post is longer than usual because I’m starting a brand-new category of the Monday Almanac. So, read the first few paragraphs to get a feel for what’s up. Then, if you like, scan the rest, see what serves you or piques your interest, and let go the rest. We don’t want to force your nose deeply into perfume of poetry. But maybe a sniff or two? Although I have been writing poetry since I learned the alphabet and some words from Dick and Jane (and Spot – “See Spot. See Spot run!”), in the three years that I’ve been composing these Monday posts on poetry, I have almost never taken the liberty of attempting to humbly explain to others the art, purpose, and mystery of poetry. So, be forewarned; that’s just what I intend to do, intermittently over the coming months. As 2020 turns over a new leaf to 2021, if you will pardon the e...

  It blows my mind that if any of the thousands of generations of my grandparents had failed to meet up, I would not exist. I would also be null and void if that little bacterium three and a half billion years ago had failed to split up. Twenty years from now, we'll see old veterans pulling on their masks as they approach the grocery store. Went big. Went broke. Went home. Home went too. Buddha said all is delusion. Even that insight is a delusion.  We are well and truly screwed.  Oops! Another delusion. Editing my contacts, I come across a friend who's died. Delete him? Hell no! The Indians accused the White Man of speaking with forked tongue. A simple, stabbing tongue would have been kinder. The great benefit of becoming tolerant of the foibles of others is that you can quit caring how your own foibles bother others. If those for and against abortion lived in different sections of the country, we'd now be having the American Civil War part II. Women are better at readin...

Welcome! Merry Holidays! Happy late Christmas! This week has been a super-duper crazy week for me and my family. From crazy Christmas tree stories to waking up at 6am to look for presents. This story will be (at least to me) one to remember. It all started when my older sister came home last Tuesday on the 15th. She flew home from Philadelphia. Since my sister had just flown from New England, we delayed our annual trip to Espe’s Tree Farm to pick our Christmas tree by a couple of days. Before we left for the tree farm we had a slight complication with winter gear because this was the first time we were all going to need our full gear since last January. But after the small hold up, we were well on our way. The tree farm was about 30 minutes away, so we listened to an old CD of kids' folk songs on the way. I tried to take some nice pictures, but when there are 7 people in a car, it can be hard to capture everyone's attention. Once we got to the tree farm, the owners led us to an...

The scallop is the most delectable of seafoods. I'm talking about the sea scallop, not the little bay scallop. Those are for Mrs. Paul. The scallop is a cousin of the clam and the oyster. While you eat the entire clam or gulp the oyster, of the scallop you eat only the muscle that holds his shells together. The scallop has a set of simple eyes along the edge of his shell. If he senses a predator, he flaps his shells to move to safety. Once safely settled, he opens his upper shell and feeds on the plankton passing by. "Scallops are gregarious," my brother Bill told me. That was the first time I had heard the word "gregarious" used in a sentence. Bill is pretty gregarious himself, but at the time he was living alone in an old one-room schoolhouse on an island off the coast of Maine. After our hitches in the Navy, Bill and I returned to our home in Boston for a year. I met a beautiful woman and moved to Minnesota to marry her. Bill had some friends living on the is...

They don’t write songs like the ballad of “El Paso,” by Marty Robbins anymore. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zBzZJd-nfw  Leastways I haven’t heard any since I used to get out in the world, then I retired in 2017, and the onslaught of a pandemic of in 2020, has kept me pretty much home-bound, ‘right around in here’ within these United States. I have to go to YouTube for my music preferences.  I don’t even go out on Facebook (as if I ever did) nor pay too much attention to who was elected President, for I’m still stinging from the election of the last one as though what I think matters at all. Further regret is not worth my study nor oxygen.    It’s not like life is passing me by; my wife does enough worrying and stressing about all that stuff for both of us and I just leave her to it. We’re not going to change the world, though we strive hard to avoid it changing us too much. We deflect pandemonium that is spread by naysayers and doomsday prophets, daily;  tha...

And here is the Wannaskan Almanac for Word-Wednesday, December 23, 2020, the 52nd Wednesday of the year, the first Wednesday of winter, and the 358th day of the year, with 8 days remaining. Wannaska Nature Update for December 23, 2020 Our neighbor’s Great Grey Owl. Nordhem Lunch: Closed. Earth/Moon Almanac for December 23, 2020 Sunrise: 8:16am; Sunset: 4:31pm; 2 minutes, 14 seconds daylight today Moonrise: 1:21pm; Moonset: 1:31am, waxing gibbous Temperature Almanac for December 23, 2020                 Average            Record              Today High             16                     42              ...