Weather, Writing, Daily Entries and Another Change

This will be my 31st daily ‘journal’ entry.

I hadn’t been planning on a daily posting schedule. But Sauk Centre’s weather gave me something to write about three days in a row:

• “The Winter Storm Continues, But Not Here”
  (January 15, 2021)
• “A Winter Weather Advisory, Next Morning’s Progress”
  (January 14, 2021)
• “A Winter Weather Advisory, Forecasts and Making Sense”
  (January 13, 2021)

And I’d been getting daily positive reinforcement from the WordPress software that manages this blog’s content.

I’m not one of Pavlov’s dogs, but getting a daily digital ‘attaboy’ felt good. Besides, I figured posting daily might be good mental exercise.

And might encourage folks to check in regularly.

But, as I said a couple weeks and a day back, “I’m not a teen idol pop superstar YouTube influencer….” (January 28, 2021)

Nobody’s going to get excited about my daily routines. I’m not excited about most of what I do. Topics I write about, yes. Flossing my teeth, not so much.

So, now that I’ve shown myself, and anyone who’s had the patience to keep checking, that I can do daily posts; I’ll go back to what I’d been doing — writing these journal entries when I had something to say. Something that might be worth reading, that is.

Like the weather.

Cold, But it Could Be Worse

(From the National Weather Service, used w/o permission.)
(Assorted Wind Chill Advisories and Warnings in the Upper Midwest. (February 12, 2021))

I’ve heard that talking about the weather as common in, say, Hawaii.

Here in the Upper Midwest, Minnesota at any rate, variations on ‘how’s the weather’ vie with ‘how are you’ for top billing as conversation starters.

Maybe that’s because we’re boring people, with nothing else to talk about.

Or, I think more likely, it’s because weather is important in these parts.

One day, back when I was living in Moorhead, Minnesota — it’s across the river from Fargo, neither is in Canada, and that’s another topic — we had dense fog and near-hurricane-force winds in the morning.

Followed by intense thunderstorms and a tornado warning and a blizzard. All before nightfall.

Even up here, that’s unusual.

But like I said: weather is important here. Knowing whether to pack arctic survival gear, sunscreen or a rubber raft matters. Well, maybe not the rubber raft.

Nobody’s daft enough to try driving on a submerged road.

Make that shouldn’t be daft enough. News items about someone falling through ice or not getting out of a sinking car happen. Sad, that.

Meanwhile, Back at My Desk

Anyway, it may be a few days before I write another journal entry. Or weeks. It depends on how routine my routines are. And, this being Minnesota, the weather.

I’ve enjoyed my ‘daily journal’ experiment. But they’ve been taking time that could have been spent on my ‘essay’ posts.

Which reminds me. NASA’s Perseverance rover arrives next week, and I have more to say about that. And Mars. And, most likely, more.

More, and less, of the same:

• “Groundhog Day, and Me in Three Words”
  (February 2, 2021)
• “A Family Visit is Still in Progress: Kids and Adoption”
  (February 1, 2021)
• “After a Dozen Years, Something (Sort of) New”
  (January 28, 2021)
• “Weather: But Mostly Desks and Principles”
  (January 30, 2021)
• “Sunshine, Snow, and Inauguration Day Looming”
  (January 19, 2021)