Category: Michigan Stories

     It’s February and, right on time, we’ve had the February thaw.  Which means hockey nets and improvised goals have been pulled off the hockey rinks on Thurston Pond, lest they be lost if the ice melts.  So far, the pond is still iced over, and the cold that’s followed the thaw may well make… Continue reading Winter and Research

     This morning, while walking the dog, I saw again a sight first seen last week:  a parent out skating on Thurston Pond while pushing a stroller.  There was no tearing around as we passed this time, unlike the mom from last week, pushing her stroller as fast as she could.  Today’s circuits of the… Continue reading On the Ice

Reading upstairs one sunny afternoon this week, I became aware of a recurrent motion outside the window.  Birds were jumping down off the roof—I could hear them up there, and sometimes see their tails while they waited their turn—and swooping down past the window.  Then zooming off to perch a moment in the neighbors’ tree. … Continue reading Winter Days

     Last year at this time, our house was empty of Christmas decorations.  One of our children had been in the hospital over the holiday, and I didn’t want the reminders of that time all around me.  The family is well this year, and our decorations are still up, despite the fact that the Feast… Continue reading Undecorating

Everyone at our Thanksgiving dinner commented on the turkey.  They liked it.  Which surprised them.  It seems most people’s favorite part of the traditional Turkey Day dinner is not the turkey.  Generally, they said, by the time a turkey is cooked, parts of it are dry.  Not so, this time, they said.  This turkey was… Continue reading Talking Turkey

It was unusually quiet when the dog and I walked this morning.  Scarcely any vehicles on the roads.  No snow on the ground or reliable ice on the pond, so no kids building snowmen or sledding or skating or even just generally whooping it up.  The lack of snow underfoot meant no creaks or squeaks… Continue reading Still, Still, Still

The snow on the sidewalks this morning is excellent snow for footprints, rendering them in perfect detail.  As snow is still falling, the tracks will soon be covered up, but for now each set of prints is easy to follow.  What we have out there is research snow.  Thus, after an hour’s field work, I… Continue reading Hypotheses and Hats

     One cold and exceedingly snowy winter when I was in my early twenties, I channeled Michael Strogoff.  Strogoff is the hero of Jules Verne’s 1876 book; he was a courier to the tsar.  No cold was too cold for Michael Strogoff.  No snow was too deep.  Michael Strogoff helped me walked to work and… Continue reading Strogoff and Tubas

When geese lit on Thurston Pond last week, the stripes that formed in the water in the wake of their landing took longer than usual to dissipate.  The colder temperatures were changing the viscosity of the water.  It was getting closer to becoming ice.      The pond is entirely iced over now.  Temperatures plummeted, and… Continue reading Elves

     The second snow of the season is on the ground now, having arrived overnight.  Unlike the first snow, this snow is sticking to sidewalks and roads.  It’s quite wet, which means it’s also bringing down the last, stalwart leaves still clinging to trees.  Rascal’s and my morning walk today took us past a house… Continue reading Second Snow