Cold......
It is cold in Midland. As I write this just after noon it is 26°, hasn't been above freezing since Saturday and not expected to until possibly tomorrow. Below average temps for sure, but not unusual for West Texas. Last years low was 2° above zero.
The sun did shine for awhile today and actually if dressed for it, which I was, it was rather invigorating, especially since the wind was not blowing. The sun felt good and the sky gets that extra azure blue color it has when it's cold and clear. When it's cold though I think back on two experiences in my life involving cold, one fairly pleasant, the other almost deadly.
My first beautiful blonde wife, Anne, was from Brainerd Minnesota; her family was in the resort business in North Central Minnesota. In the summer it was stunning with crystal clear lakes surrounded by pine forests, perfect for fishing, boating and sailing. That's why the resort business was good at their hotels. The winter, as you can imagine, was a different story.
For six years we went up to Brainerd for a week either at Christmas or Thanksgiving and in all those weeks spent there I can't ever recall the temperature being above freezing. Usually the high for the day was somewhere around 8 or 10 degrees with lows at night hovering near 10-15 degrees below zero. The lakes were frozen so hard that ice fishermen drove their Winnebago's out onto the ice or built sheds that were left on the lake all winter. One Christmas the nights dropped down to -30°. So cold that your face had to be covered and the "stuff" in your nose froze every time you inhaled. The sun set at around 4 p.m. so that any warmth accumulated during the short day, quickly left. [as an update at 10 p.m, I checked the weather in Brainerd...it's a balmy -3°]
It was usually a great treat for a Texan though. For southwesterner's, activities like ice sailing, ice fishing, hockey, cross country skiing, snowshoeing and snowmobiling were a blast. A blast for a week anyway, I'm not sure I could handle four months of below freezing temperatures, getting very bundled up every time you venture outside and the "stuff" freezing in my nose every time I took a breath.
The other cold weather experience I recall is one of the four times, that I know of, that I almost bought the farm. One of my best friends in Dallas had a really nice, big airboat. A flat bottomed boat powered by a Chevy 350 c.i. engine with a airplane propeller attached. For years we took the boat to Lake Texhoma to go duck hunting; the boat was a superb way to get into the mudflats where the ducks congregated. When we decided to go hunting, not much could stop us not even frigid weather. We had great gear and years of experience. We never had a problem, until the last time we went.
On a Wednesday in weather much like we have in Midland today, about 25° degrees, we set out before dawn from a secluded boat launch ramp, the airboat loaded with four pals, our gear and a big black lab dog. Only one other boat was at the ramp with us, no one else appeared to be on our part of the lake in such weather. As we left shore we started to see ice, and then more ice on the lake. As heavy as the boat was, we ended up driving on top of large stretches of unbroken ice in the more shallow water. An airboat will do that.
As we arrived at more open waters the ice subsided except near the shore, but it was so cold that the exposed carburator on the engine started to ice up. We decided that if we headed to a nearby island far from shore, and let the engine idle the icing problem might clear up. Even with all the clothes we could wear under hunting waders we were pretty chilled from the ride in an open boat. As we approached the shore the boat hit a rock steady hunk of thick ice and started to tip; with the high center of gravity it became apparent that the boat would not right itself.
The stories you hear about time slowing down in traumatic situations are very real. For what seemed like an eternity I could feel the boat going over and then we were in the water, our gear floating around us and the boat heading to the bottom of the lake. Being suddenly immersed in freezing water is a feeling beyond description. All the breath seems to be sucked right out of your body and to make your limbs function takes supreme effort. Any type of warm clothing is of no protection and in fact tends to make you sink. The only thing that immediately saved me were pockets of air in my waders, but having waders on made it almost impossible to swim the 40 yards to the shore of the island. I was not helped by the big black lab who kept jumping on my head and shoulders pushing me under the water. I can see how, in situations like this, that people just give up and drown.
Luckily, I was in fairly good physical shape and was able to struggle near enough to the island to feel bottom and make it ashore where my exhausted friends awaited me. They had been able to grab onto the floating bags of duck decoys and made it to the island ahead of me.
Saved from the water but our ordeal was not over. We were soaking wet, in subfreezing temperatures on an island a good half of a mile from the main shore. God and experience were on our side though. We all carried a waterproof container of matches with us and God had supplied a large pile of flotsam and wood on the island, which we quickly set onfire and found some relief.
God was more involved that we imagined though, for the only other hunters on this part of the lake, the one's we had seen at the boat ramp an hour ealier had been looking in the right direction from a mile away, had seen the spray thrown up by the propeller hitting the water and came breaking through the ice to get to us. In their small boat it took several hours to get us all back to the boatramp and warmth. I'm one who has no doubt that God does have a plan for me and it wasn't to drown or freeze to death that day.
Amazingly we hired a salvage company in Oklahoma to try and recover the boat, which they did the next day, bringing it up unharmed along with all our guns which had been lashed to the side of the boat. That, however, was our last trip in the airboat for when wives found out about the close call there was no reasoning with them and they ordered the boat sold.
I get cold just thinking and writing about that episode, I think I need to go warm up.
It is cold in Midland. As I write this just after noon it is 26°, hasn't been above freezing since Saturday and not expected to until possibly tomorrow. Below average temps for sure, but not unusual for West Texas. Last years low was 2° above zero.
The sun did shine for awhile today and actually if dressed for it, which I was, it was rather invigorating, especially since the wind was not blowing. The sun felt good and the sky gets that extra azure blue color it has when it's cold and clear. When it's cold though I think back on two experiences in my life involving cold, one fairly pleasant, the other almost deadly.
My first beautiful blonde wife, Anne, was from Brainerd Minnesota; her family was in the resort business in North Central Minnesota. In the summer it was stunning with crystal clear lakes surrounded by pine forests, perfect for fishing, boating and sailing. That's why the resort business was good at their hotels. The winter, as you can imagine, was a different story.
For six years we went up to Brainerd for a week either at Christmas or Thanksgiving and in all those weeks spent there I can't ever recall the temperature being above freezing. Usually the high for the day was somewhere around 8 or 10 degrees with lows at night hovering near 10-15 degrees below zero. The lakes were frozen so hard that ice fishermen drove their Winnebago's out onto the ice or built sheds that were left on the lake all winter. One Christmas the nights dropped down to -30°. So cold that your face had to be covered and the "stuff" in your nose froze every time you inhaled. The sun set at around 4 p.m. so that any warmth accumulated during the short day, quickly left. [as an update at 10 p.m, I checked the weather in Brainerd...it's a balmy -3°]
It was usually a great treat for a Texan though. For southwesterner's, activities like ice sailing, ice fishing, hockey, cross country skiing, snowshoeing and snowmobiling were a blast. A blast for a week anyway, I'm not sure I could handle four months of below freezing temperatures, getting very bundled up every time you venture outside and the "stuff" freezing in my nose every time I took a breath.
The other cold weather experience I recall is one of the four times, that I know of, that I almost bought the farm. One of my best friends in Dallas had a really nice, big airboat. A flat bottomed boat powered by a Chevy 350 c.i. engine with a airplane propeller attached. For years we took the boat to Lake Texhoma to go duck hunting; the boat was a superb way to get into the mudflats where the ducks congregated. When we decided to go hunting, not much could stop us not even frigid weather. We had great gear and years of experience. We never had a problem, until the last time we went.
On a Wednesday in weather much like we have in Midland today, about 25° degrees, we set out before dawn from a secluded boat launch ramp, the airboat loaded with four pals, our gear and a big black lab dog. Only one other boat was at the ramp with us, no one else appeared to be on our part of the lake in such weather. As we left shore we started to see ice, and then more ice on the lake. As heavy as the boat was, we ended up driving on top of large stretches of unbroken ice in the more shallow water. An airboat will do that.
As we arrived at more open waters the ice subsided except near the shore, but it was so cold that the exposed carburator on the engine started to ice up. We decided that if we headed to a nearby island far from shore, and let the engine idle the icing problem might clear up. Even with all the clothes we could wear under hunting waders we were pretty chilled from the ride in an open boat. As we approached the shore the boat hit a rock steady hunk of thick ice and started to tip; with the high center of gravity it became apparent that the boat would not right itself.
The stories you hear about time slowing down in traumatic situations are very real. For what seemed like an eternity I could feel the boat going over and then we were in the water, our gear floating around us and the boat heading to the bottom of the lake. Being suddenly immersed in freezing water is a feeling beyond description. All the breath seems to be sucked right out of your body and to make your limbs function takes supreme effort. Any type of warm clothing is of no protection and in fact tends to make you sink. The only thing that immediately saved me were pockets of air in my waders, but having waders on made it almost impossible to swim the 40 yards to the shore of the island. I was not helped by the big black lab who kept jumping on my head and shoulders pushing me under the water. I can see how, in situations like this, that people just give up and drown.
Luckily, I was in fairly good physical shape and was able to struggle near enough to the island to feel bottom and make it ashore where my exhausted friends awaited me. They had been able to grab onto the floating bags of duck decoys and made it to the island ahead of me.
Saved from the water but our ordeal was not over. We were soaking wet, in subfreezing temperatures on an island a good half of a mile from the main shore. God and experience were on our side though. We all carried a waterproof container of matches with us and God had supplied a large pile of flotsam and wood on the island, which we quickly set onfire and found some relief.
God was more involved that we imagined though, for the only other hunters on this part of the lake, the one's we had seen at the boat ramp an hour ealier had been looking in the right direction from a mile away, had seen the spray thrown up by the propeller hitting the water and came breaking through the ice to get to us. In their small boat it took several hours to get us all back to the boatramp and warmth. I'm one who has no doubt that God does have a plan for me and it wasn't to drown or freeze to death that day.
Amazingly we hired a salvage company in Oklahoma to try and recover the boat, which they did the next day, bringing it up unharmed along with all our guns which had been lashed to the side of the boat. That, however, was our last trip in the airboat for when wives found out about the close call there was no reasoning with them and they ordered the boat sold.
I get cold just thinking and writing about that episode, I think I need to go warm up.
