Over The River

Remember that old song we learned in school?
"Over the river and through the woods to Grandmother's house we go.
The horse knows the way to carry the sleigh through the white and drifted snow, Oh
Over the river and through the woods, oh how the wind does blow!
It stings the toes and bites the nose as over the ground we go."
A couple verses later, we find that they are going to Grandmother's, not for Christmas, but for Thanksgiving. Even in a northern climate like they have in New England, it would be unheard of today for the ice on most rivers to be thick enough to support a horse and sleigh by Thanksgiving. Maybe by Christmas, but certainly not by Thanksgiving.

Speaking of New England, they are about to be hammered by Winter Storm Stella, the same one that just passed south of us and dusted you guys in Chicago. The storm is supposed to increase in intensity as it moves east and then turns up the Atlantic coast, possibly attaining blizzard status by the time it reaches New York City. The Weather Channel has been abuzz about it for days. A couple years ago, the Weather Channel started naming winter storms like they do hurricanes. I wish they wouldn't do that, it just encourages them. Anyway, this one missed us here in Cheboygan, but most of the rest of the Lower Peninsula got some snow. That's what we used to say before they started naming those winter storms, "We got some snow."

Uncle Ken and I have gone round and round about this global warming thing. I finally admitted that there might be something to it, but that's as far as I will go, at least for now. One reason that I am taking it with a grain of salt is that many of the respected scientists who agree with each other about it are working with government funding. If they were to conclude that there is nothing to it, I suspect that the funding would dry up.

Ice ages have come and gone, and the Little Ice Age was a small cycle within a larger cycle, a mere blip on the radar screen. By some accounts, we are just now beginning to pull out of the last big ice age. I seem to remember that, back in the 70s, they were worried about global cooling, which was allegedly being caused by the same carbon in the atmosphere that is allegedly causing global warming today. Now they are calling it "climate change" instead of "global warming". That way, whether the climate warms or cools, it's still our fault.