2022 Life Logs, Day 27: Laundry Day
Date: Thursday, January 27, 2022
Weather: Sunny and Cold; High Temp 29, Low Temp 24 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

The temperature was 10 degrees F this morning when I woke up to find there was a power outage. Almost immediately, I got a text from Heather saying their power was out and Jed reported there was no power in Woods Hole. I don’t know what was going on, but in about 10 minutes the power was back on. Good to have power when the temperature is that low. Cold as it was, it was beautiful outside. There was not a cloud in the sky, the sun was shining, and early this morning there was no wind, so Shadow and I took an early morning walk. Then I headed into town to Heather and Jed’s to do laundry. I had my clothes, plus sheets, and all the towels that were a result of Shadow’s bath yesterday. It took almost three hours, but I took my computer and wrote while I was waiting. When I got home I took Shadow for another walk, but it wasn’t as delightful because the wind was blowing. But we walked and played ball. Then I came inside and finished Chapter 17 about our time in the Vava’u Group of islands in northern Tonga. Then I started on the final chapter of year one of the Voyage of Windbird that will end in New Zealand. Hallelujah! I should finish that in a day or two or three and then start the editing process for book one before starting to write about the middle years of the voyage. And when that is done, I’ll write book three of the trilogy about the final leg of the voyage through the Indian Ocean, around the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa, and back home. Lots of writing to be done. Maybe by 2024 I’ll be finished!

Tomorrow I will spend time preparing for the coming storm or blizzard or whatever it ends up to be here on the Cape. I watched the Weather Channel long enough this evening to hear that there has not been a blizzard warning in New York City for four years. That made me ask, “Technically, what is a blizzard?” In looking up the answer to that question I learned that the last blizzard in NYC was on January 23, 2016. Maybe there was a blizzard warning in 2018 or maybe I misunderstood what they were saying on the Weather Channel. Whatever, it has been six years since there was a blizzard in the city. I saw one definition of a blizzard that stated, “A blizzard is a snowstorm on steroids.” That prompted another question. What does that mean? What I found was that a blizzard must:
1. Have sustained winds or frequent gusts of 35 mph or greater.
2. Have considerable falling and/or blowing snow that reduces visibility to under a quarter of a mile.
3. Lastly, a blizzard must have the first two conditions for at least three consecutive hours.

I sure hope Cape Cod is just getting a snowstorm. At this point, the forecast is for snow to begin late tomorrow night, snow throughout the night, dump an inch of snow every hour from 6 am to 3 pm on Saturday, and then continue snowing until 10 pm. The winds of 30 to 35 mph are forecast to happen from 10 pm tomorrow night until 6 pm Saturday morning. But even during the day on Saturday, the winds are forecast to be in the upper 20’s going down into the teens by 1 am on Sunday morning. Sounds like it could meet the definition of a blizzard. Whatever, just taking Shadow out for a pee on Saturday sounds like no fun at all! He loves falling snow, but not snow blowing sideways.