Tuesday, January 17, 2017

Dead In Winter



(From Ray X X-Rayer #130)


I have the perfect symbol to represent winters in the Plattsburgh, NY area.

Dead means "the middle" in the idiom dead of winter, referring to its long nights and cold killer temps. Lately during the day the mercury is a little above 0 degrees F/ -17 degrees C. At night the temp can take a double digit drop from that point.  Death does rule.

This time of year -- January -- is around the middle of the arctic season around here.  Winter usually drags on for six months.  April showers?  Forget it, you can still trudge through snow on the ground.  In fact the white death can even drop in May. Nothing says spring more than shoveling snow during Mother's Day weekend and suffering a heart attack.

And nothing says stupid more than bottom of the barrel superheroes.  At DC comics there is the Legion of Super Heroes, a top-notch group operating in the future when space travel is commonplace.  A Legion member is super-powered by accident or by the natural ability he was born with on his native planet.


Many apply for LSH membership but few are accepted due to their unimpressive abilities.  Take Dag Wentim -- Stone Boy -- from the planet Zwen.  Evolution has blessed his people with the ability to turn into stone, falling into suspended animation to deal with the long winters.

And how long are those winters?  Six months.  Just like around here.


2 comments:

Terry the Censor said...

Up here in Toronto, we've had January rains instead of our usual biting cold winds. Twelve of 19 days so far this month have been 0C/32F or above. The forcast says the next eight days will have highs above freezing with rain five of those days. Nine of the remaining 12 days will be above zero, making 21 days in January that will not be below freezing.

Remember, Toronto is in Canada!

Sure, it's nice walking around without ice to slip on but...it makes one wonder if those scientists juuust might know what they're talking about! In which case, spring training might move to the Great Lakes region before long. Great for me but...

Ray Palm (Ray X) said...

One aspect of climate change is "global weirding" (part of global warming), drastic ups and downs with the weather. For example around here we've experienced very warm days followed by a sudden drop in temp. All part of the roller coaster ride. I enjoyed -- well, tolerated -- last winter much better because it was mild throughout the entire season.