Tuesday, February 01, 2011

IT'S A ROLLER COASTER RIDE

Glen and I have often marveled at a prairie sunset and agreed that if the scene before us with all those colors (and we're talking everything from pale pink right through all the oranges and reds imaginable to purple and magenta ) were in a painting or framed photograph, no one would believe that it was real. Remember back in the days of the original Star Trek series when they would alter the background colors to make it look like "other-worldly", well that about sums up what we see for sunsets every night. Saskatchewan has "Land of the Living Skies" written on our license plates - it sounds kind of over-the-top when you first hear it, but come and live here a while and see if it doesn't fit.

The reason I was thinking of this out-of-this-world weather scenario tonight is not because of the sunset (although it was beautiful, as usual) but because of the temperature. I got to thinking about what aliens would think about our planet today if they had their sensors trained on the North American continent trying to see what the living conditions might be like.

This time last week we were just coming out of an incredible deepfreeze - temps in the mid minus 30's and windchills to take it to minus 40. Then a spell of a few days when the ice melted and the roads became trecherous. Then, back down to minus 45 with the windchill. I can just see the little green men in their weather room putting a huge X through our planet and placing it on the "Uninhabitable" list. I would hazard a guess that there are more than a few humans who would agree with them right about now. But, not to worry, by tomorrow evening we are supposed to be up near the zero mark again. There's a saying out here - "If you don't like the weather here, just wait a minute."

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