{"id":4672,"date":"2021-02-12T20:07:53","date_gmt":"2021-02-12T20:07:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/?p=4672"},"modified":"2025-09-17T17:08:13","modified_gmt":"2025-09-17T17:08:13","slug":"weather-writing-daily-entries-and-another-change","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/weather-writing-daily-entries-and-another-change\/","title":{"rendered":"Weather, Writing, Daily Entries and Another Change"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/brendans-island.com\/blogsource\/20210209ff\/20210212-am-DSC08945-658.JPG?w=640&#038;ssl=1\"><\/p>\n<p>This will be my 31st daily &#8216;journal&#8217; entry.<\/p>\n<p>I hadn&#8217;t been planning on a daily posting schedule. But Sauk Centre&#8217;s weather gave me something to write about three days in a row:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/the-winter-storm-continues-but-not-here\/\">The Winter Storm Continues, But Not Here<\/a>&#8221;<br \/>\n(January 15, 2021)<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/a-winter-weather-advisory-next-mornings-progress\/\">A Winter Weather Advisory, Next Morning\u2019s Progress<\/a>&#8221;<br \/>\n(January 14, 2021)<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/a-winter-weather-advisory-forecasts-and-making-sense\/\">A Winter Weather Advisory, Forecasts and Making Sense<\/a>&#8221;<br \/>\n(January 13, 2021)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>And I&#8217;d been getting daily positive reinforcement from the WordPress software that manages this blog&#8217;s content.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m not one of Pavlov&#8217;s dogs, but getting a daily digital &#8216;attaboy&#8217; felt good. Besides, I figured posting daily might be good mental exercise.<\/p>\n<p>And might encourage folks to check in regularly.<\/p>\n<p>But, as I said a couple weeks and a day back, &#8220;I&#8217;m not a teen idol pop superstar YouTube influencer&#8230;.&#8221; (<a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/after-a-dozen-years-something-sort-of-new\/#now\">January 28, 2021<\/a>)<\/p>\n<p>Nobody&#8217;s going to get excited about my daily routines. <strong>I&#8217;m<\/strong> not excited about most of what I do. Topics I write about, yes. Flossing my teeth, not so much.<\/p>\n<p>So, now that I&#8217;ve shown myself, and anyone who&#8217;s had the patience to keep checking, that I can do daily posts; I&#8217;ll go back to what I&#8217;d been doing \u2014 writing these journal entries when I had something to say. Something that might be worth reading, that is.<\/p>\n<p>Like the weather.<\/p>\n<h4><a name=\"cold\"><\/a>Cold, But it Could Be Worse<\/h4>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.weather.gov\/\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/brendans-island.com\/blogsource\/20210209ff\/20210212-1218-US-658.jpg?w=640&#038;ssl=1\"><\/a><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-size: xx-small;\">(From the National Weather Service, used w\/o permission.)<\/span><br \/>\n(Assorted Wind Chill Advisories and Warnings in the Upper Midwest. (February 12, 2021))<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;ve heard that talking about the weather as common in, say, Hawaii.<\/p>\n<p>Here in the Upper Midwest, Minnesota at any rate, variations on &#8216;how&#8217;s the weather&#8217; vie with &#8216;how are you&#8217; for top billing as conversation starters.<\/p>\n<p>Maybe that&#8217;s because we&#8217;re boring people, with nothing else to talk about.<\/p>\n<p>Or, I think more likely, it&#8217;s because weather is important in these parts.<\/p>\n<p>One day, back when I was living in Moorhead, Minnesota \u2014 it&#8217;s across the river from Fargo, neither is in Canada, and that&#8217;s another topic \u2014 we had dense fog and near-hurricane-force winds in the morning.<\/p>\n<p>Followed by intense thunderstorms and a tornado warning and a blizzard. All before nightfall.<\/p>\n<p>Even up here, that&#8217;s unusual.<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>Nobody&#8217;s daft enough to try driving on a submerged road.<\/p>\n<p>Make that shouldn&#8217;t be daft enough. News items about someone falling through ice or not getting out of a sinking car happen. Sad, that.<\/p>\n<h4><a name=\"meanwhile\"><\/a>Meanwhile, Back at My Desk<\/h4>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/weather-but-mostly-desks-and-principles\/#my\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/brendans-island.com\/blogsource\/20201109ff\/20210129-DSC08932-morning-329.JPG?w=640&#038;ssl=1\" align=\"right\"><\/a>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.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;ve enjoyed my &#8216;daily journal&#8217; experiment. But they&#8217;ve been taking time that could have been spent on my &#8216;essay&#8217; posts.<\/p>\n<p>Which reminds me. NASA&#8217;s Perseverance rover arrives next week, and I have more to say about that. And Mars. And, most likely, more.<\/p>\n<p>More, and less, of the same:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/groundhog-day-and-me-in-three-words\/\">Groundhog Day, and Me in Three Words<\/a>&#8221;<br \/>\n(February 2, 2021)<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/a-family-visit-is-still-in-progress-kids-and-adoption\/\">A Family Visit is Still in Progress: Kids and Adoption<\/a>&#8221;<br \/>\n(February 1, 2021)<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/after-a-dozen-years-something-sort-of-new\/\">After a Dozen Years, Something (Sort of) New<\/a>&#8221;<br \/>\n(January 28, 2021)<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/weather-but-mostly-desks-and-principles\/\">Weather: But Mostly Desks and Principles<\/a>&#8221;<br \/>\n(January 30, 2021)<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/sunshine-snow-and-inauguration-day-looming\/\">Sunshine, Snow, and Inauguration Day Looming<\/a>&#8221;<br \/>\n(January 19, 2021)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This will be my 31st daily &#8216;journal&#8217; entry. I hadn&#8217;t been planning on a daily posting schedule. But Sauk Centre&#8217;s weather gave me something to write about three days in a row: &#8220;The Winter Storm Continues, But Not Here&#8221; (January &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/weather-writing-daily-entries-and-another-change\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[223,192,209],"tags":[13,241,132,12],"class_list":["post-4672","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-creativity","category-journal","category-series","tag-blogging","tag-upper-midwest","tag-weather","tag-writing"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7Dwtw-1dm","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4672","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4672"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4672\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6047,"href":"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4672\/revisions\/6047"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4672"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4672"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4672"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}