Perpetual Ruminations

Thursday

I'm getting in here a little earlier today; actually, it's a lot earlier than most days. Why, because Mother Nature can really be a bitch sometimes. I'd say bipolar from my observations and understanding of the condition. Here we are, almost at the end of March and spring is upon us. Robins are back, as are other song birds, the little furry critters are out of hibernation, calves are being born and winter is finally over.

It's been a long, brutal winter for us, too. Not a lot of snow, thankfully, but plenty of arctic cold and strong winds making it feel even colder. But, it's only days away form being April and we all know that April showers bring in the May flowers. We also know that the March winds are suppose to deliver the April showers. Children clad in rubber boots and spring jackets should be out flying kites and playing in the mud and the puddles. But Mother Nature cannot make up her mind.

Yesterday, we hit almost sixty degrees outside, and the wind was terrible. Let me phrase it this way, you better have a heavy duty kite and attach light steel cable to it. Oh, and forget about holding it with your hands, use a power winch and make sure any small children are well anchored to the ground so you don't lose them. Windy really doesn't describe it, but here in South Dakota, the term breezy is used. Of course, here in South Dakota, many natives not only use false terms, they actually do things completely ass-backwards. Even though the school system is advanced and they have the same general education as the rest of the nation, they tend to think of themselves as hicks and back-wood. Their macho, we are a special breed, we can do anything, and we do it our way attitude shows up anywhere and everywhere. But, this is another story for another day. I should add, however, that this is not a depiction of all South Dakotans, whether native or not, and there are some very fine people located here. As is the case most places, the good people seem to be unnoticed on the sidelines, while the loud morons are in the spotlights.

Anyway, back to the subject at hand. We have been having a brutal winter. We see one nice day, but usually very windy and often snowing, then back into the arctic cold. This last month has repeated this pattern, only the nice days are nicer and the cold is not as severe. Even though we only get one nice day, usually windy, about once a week, the snow has all but vanished, the ice is melting off the lakes, and the ground is beginning to thaw. Robins and other song birds have been weathering the cold for near a month, calves and fawns are being born, and we are seeing temperatures near sixty at times. Then, it starts to rain a little, the temperature drops and we get ice coated, with an inch or two of snow on it. Then, it's below freezing, often near zero for the rest of the week, or into the next. Then another nice day, but windy hits, followed by more rain turn to ice and cover with snow.

This is what I meant by bipolar. Yesterday we had sunshine and almost sixty degrees, but extremely windy. But, the sun melts the snow and warms the ground, the wind dries up the mud and water, and spring is near. Today, we seen thirty five degrees this morning, and rain. Great, we need a little rain to clean things up, drive the frost out of the ground, and turn everything green.

Only, Mother -- I have bipolar disorder -- Nature does not just give us rain. No, she drops the temperature again and it's soon a nice thick coat of ice on everything. The moisture is still coming, but now it's no longer rain, it's these hard little ice balls that sting like hell when they impact ones face and any other exposed skin. Why? Because Mom's a blowhard, too. Yeah, she has to bring all this in with a nice wind of 30 to 40 miles per hour, gusting into the fifties and possibly even sixty mile an hour range. Also, she has to keep dropping the temperature to ensure the ice coating is not going to melt off for the rest of the day. In fact, she turns the painful little ice balls into great big fluffy snow flakes and decides to dump about a half foot of the stuff on the ice.

Because Rhonda does not like to drive under these conditions, I took some time to drive her to work. Visibility was terrible, but it didn't make a lot of difference since going forty miles per hour was pushing it, and many areas we drove thirty or even less. In the twenty five miles we have to travel from our house to work, there were tracks from at least a half dozen vehicles that had gone into the ditches. We seen a couple actually go into the ditch, and seen signs where others had been pulled out. Even so, I was passed by these previously mentioned idiots, tailgated by them, I had some drive out from side roads right in front of me, and I watched from a slow and safe distance as they slid at stoplights and intersections.

After I dropped Rhonda off at work, I had to run uptown, and took the side roads as much as possible. I seen vehicles slide right through red lights, run into curbs because they could not steer, and even run into other vehicles because neither one could stop or turn. As I approached the store, I witnessed a car trying to stop to make the same turn I would soon be making. But, since they were tooling along at thirty miles per hour, and driving like it was nice and dry out, they could not break to stop or even slow down. Instead of just driving past and slowing down, turning around and returning, they just tried to make the turn anyway.

Bad choice for them, and luckily no other vehicle was coming at them, or parked in the area of the lot they eventually slid into. You see, they turned the wheels, but the car kept going straight. Then, they hit the breaks again, and the vehicle began to spin down the road, slowly crossing over the center line towards the lot they had wanted to pull into. Only they were already past the entrance, and entered the lot in the parking area. Luckily the curb and the concrete parking  stops in the parking lot stopped them from spinning, and with two wheels in the lot on one side of these stops, the other two wheels still on the road up against the curb, they came to a full stop. Unfortunately they could not get the car off the parking stops, and likely tore up the underside of the vehicle quite a bit. But luckily for them, the police station and city hall are right there on the corner by which they stopped. In fact, as I crept slowly past into the icy lot, I seen a police vehicle pulling up and investigating the strange manner these people parked.

I wonder? Were these some of the people I see posting in Facebook that reads something about South Dakotans can drive sixty five mph in a blizzard, and a little ice and snow doesn't hinder them at all? I bet they were, and being the special breed they claim to be, I bet they get a ride home from a friend or relative, jump in the pickup truck and do it all over again. Why not, they have four wheel drive now...