This morning I am waiting to learn what is supposed to happen with the weather. The Weather Channel is on the on behind me, distracting me with its constant run of sound bytes. My windows overlooking the Cheyenne River valley are also behind me, calling softly to me to look out and see what the weather is and what it has already brought. This “waiting to learn” is not comfortable; it is not ordinary for me. Typically I take the weather in the present tense, as I meet it in the now, at this time. In that respect I sometimes fancy myself a little like the other animals that inhabit these great plains, yet knowing full well that I am not them.
I have my shelter from the wind, my burrow, my food supply; I have those times when I hunker down out of the cold, the wind, the snow and rain, which doesn’t happen often. I have my winter coat, and I ordinarily put on a little “winter weight” that I will typically shed in the summer. When outside working, I will seek out, if possible, the leeward side of a building and stand in the warmth of the sun reflected from the side of the building. I will park my pickup facing the sun to take advantage of the solar radiation within the cab.
I often see cottontails or partridge or pheasants and grouse doing the same thing: burrowed into the snow out of the wind and soaking up the warmth of the sun. I have seen jack rabbits and deer doing the same thing. I once saw a prairie falcon, on that morning after a blizzard when the bright sun and clear skies beckon, work its way clear of the snow drift that had enclosed it like a cocoon and take to the skies in search of a meal that would replenish the body fat it had burnt up to keep itself alive during the blizzard.
The buffalo are a little different. Neither the wind, snow, cold, rain, mud or ice seem to have much effect on them. They don’t hunker down usually; they will kind of “camp out”, lying on a hillside somewhere. But they don’t seek the shelter of trees or the leeward side of hills or protected draws and gullies. They just are, and they never seem to be anything or anywhere other than in the present tense of their surroundings.
And here I am waiting to learn what is supposed to happen with the weather because I wish to travel on New Year’s Eve day. I must say that the sound bytes on the Weather Channel distract me, but the prospects of the travel more than make up for it. Happy New Year folks.