When I awoke this morning in my hometown of McClusky, ND, I saw
that for the second time in two days there was a half-inch of ice
coating the bottom seal of my bedroom window. Despite two electric
heaters running constantly, my kitchen floor was frigid. I fired up my
portable propane heater to take the chill out of my kitchen.
Even though I had run my dog's tie-out cable under the front door into
my entryway, the cold 25-below-zero temperature had crept up the steel
cable and the clasp was frozen shut. I used a lighter to de-ice the
clasp as the cold burned my fingers. My German Shepherd wasted no time
doing his business when he confronted the 25-below-zero temps and a wind
chill of minus 50.
The school board had wisely decided to close
the schools due to the extreme cold and icy roads so I dropped my son
off at Grandpa's house. As I left for work at the local grain elevator, I
heard a loud snap. It wasn't a gunshot -- just a tree cracking from the cold.
The wind howled between the buildings at work and I turned my face
away to avoid the stabbing pain. I was unable to unlock the door with my
thick work gloves on and after a few seconds of fumbling with the keys
bare-handed, I retreated to my pick-up to warm my stiff fingers. My
second attempt to unlock the door was successful despite my numb hands.
The talk around the coffee pot at work was all about the extreme cold.
Whose tractors couldn't be started? Who spent the morning thawing water
pipes? How will the cattle fare and how many calves may be lost? Will
the deer and pheasant populations be decimated as much as they were
during the last extreme cold snap two decades ago?
But the talk
in rural North Dakota always turns to the future. This morning it turned
to this coming weekend. It will be 30 degrees above zero - shirt-sleeve weather!
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