Jodi "Whippy" Pearsall***************
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It's Garbage Day.
26 degrees and dry at 5:30 a.m.
26 degrees and dry at 5:30 a.m.
The Weather Forecast from YNN: "Plenty of Sun & Pleasant Thursday; Bitter Cold Returns for the Weekend.
Quiet weather will continue for the remainder of the night with clearing skies and chilly temperatures. Overnight lows will be in the upper teens and lower 20s.
Thursday will be mostly sunny, quiet and pleasant with highs in the upper 30s to around 40 degrees. Quiet weather will continue into Friday with morning sunshine giving way to increasing clouds. A cold front will arrive towards Friday night with snow showers and a few squalls. Much colder air will drain in behind this front with highs only in the teens for Saturday. There may be a few leftover flurries early in the day. Cold air will likely stick around into Sunday with highs once again in the teens. Flurries will be possible early Sunday with plenty of sunshine expected for the afternoon.Temperatures should get back to more seasonable levels for the start of next week with highs in the lower 30s on Monday."
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Although it was mostly cloudy on Tuesday and completely gray on Wednesday, the sky cleared during Tuesday night and the full "Snow Moon" was amazingly bright. Many remark that the days are getting longer - and lighter - too.
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The Morgans' front door on Stafford Avenue.
Next Tuesday is Valentine's Day. In my Email was a note from Gail Prentice that included an explanation of the origin of that annual occasion taken from an Email that had been sent to her:
"If you need proof that our February 14 holiday is not a Hallmark ploy to sell more cards, consider Shakespeare, far older than Hallmark's 102 years. Just after his tragic hero, Hamlet, murders Polonius, the grief-stricken Ophelia sings:
'To-morrow is St. Valentine's Day,
All in the morning be time,
And I a maid at your window
To be your Valentine.'
"Stories purporting to know the origins of Valentine's Day abound. They include that of a Roman priest, Valentine, who was jailed for Christianity, illegal in 270 AD Rome. His death on February 14 coincided with an established bird-mating holiday. The priest's martyrdom supposedly provided a name for this celebration of avian affection. Valentine's Day has been celebrated on the same day for more that 1700 years." (Thanks, Gail!)
That was a bit of "ancient history" for the day. Rusty and Joan have sent me some more recent history to share with you - taken from an early 1850s issue of The Waterville Times:
"On Wednesday evening the cry of 'Fire!'' issuing from that vortex in the 'human face divine' known as the mouth, created no little excitement in our village, and caused the 'Deluge' and 'Triton' boys to make rapid strides for their respective engines. In less than five minutes from the time the alarm was first sounded, 'our hose cart' and the 'Triton Machine,' manned by a legion of 'fellers,' were flying through the streets in route for Forge Hollow at extraordinary speed. Dust flew, urchins scattered, and dogs fled howling and yelling in various directions altogether too numerous for our reporter to enumerate. On arriving near Berrill's, foundry, the shout 'False alarm!' fell upon the ears of our excited and ambitious Firemen, who then returned, with solemn tread and saddened faces, to their engine houses, and talked over the punishment that should be meted out to the wretch that would raise the false alarm of fire.
From the cry raised, one would suppose that the entire village was 'one lurid sheet of flames' ; whereas, someone near Forge Hollow was diligently engaged in burning brush."
Thanks, Rusty!
Another blog reader has brought to my attention an article by Helen Alberding, of Oriskany Falls, that appears in the current issue of The Midyork Weekly.
"If you need proof that our February 14 holiday is not a Hallmark ploy to sell more cards, consider Shakespeare, far older than Hallmark's 102 years. Just after his tragic hero, Hamlet, murders Polonius, the grief-stricken Ophelia sings:
'To-morrow is St. Valentine's Day,
All in the morning be time,
And I a maid at your window
To be your Valentine.'
"Stories purporting to know the origins of Valentine's Day abound. They include that of a Roman priest, Valentine, who was jailed for Christianity, illegal in 270 AD Rome. His death on February 14 coincided with an established bird-mating holiday. The priest's martyrdom supposedly provided a name for this celebration of avian affection. Valentine's Day has been celebrated on the same day for more that 1700 years." (Thanks, Gail!)
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That was a bit of "ancient history" for the day. Rusty and Joan have sent me some more recent history to share with you - taken from an early 1850s issue of The Waterville Times:
"On Wednesday evening the cry of 'Fire!'' issuing from that vortex in the 'human face divine' known as the mouth, created no little excitement in our village, and caused the 'Deluge' and 'Triton' boys to make rapid strides for their respective engines. In less than five minutes from the time the alarm was first sounded, 'our hose cart' and the 'Triton Machine,' manned by a legion of 'fellers,' were flying through the streets in route for Forge Hollow at extraordinary speed. Dust flew, urchins scattered, and dogs fled howling and yelling in various directions altogether too numerous for our reporter to enumerate. On arriving near Berrill's, foundry, the shout 'False alarm!' fell upon the ears of our excited and ambitious Firemen, who then returned, with solemn tread and saddened faces, to their engine houses, and talked over the punishment that should be meted out to the wretch that would raise the false alarm of fire.
From the cry raised, one would suppose that the entire village was 'one lurid sheet of flames' ; whereas, someone near Forge Hollow was diligently engaged in burning brush."
Thanks, Rusty!
Another blog reader has brought to my attention an article by Helen Alberding, of Oriskany Falls, that appears in the current issue of The Midyork Weekly.
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REMINDER
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FOR THE RECORD
OR - FOR YOUR AMUSEMENT!
OR - FOR YOUR AMUSEMENT!
From yesterday's Washington Post:
The amount of snow predicted? One to Three inches!
Snowplows hit the roads early!
Snowplows hit the roads early!
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Have a good day, everyone!
Have a good day, everyone!
