Shoveling the ice-covered snow that led to the canine behavior described in this podcast was also an interesting experience. That the compressed snow was heavy goes without saying. More interesting was that I could read the history of the storm in the layers of compressed snow and ice. I couldn’t help but think about how geologists and paleontologists use a similar technique to determine what happened thousands of years ago.
Had I wanted to and had the strength to, I could have broken huge slabs of ice off the surface and sent them skidding across the lawn to get rid of them and also—let’s face it—for the sheer fun of it. Because I didn’t, I broke the surface ice into more manageable pieces with my shovel. In those areas where the snow is piled so high that I had to throw the slabs of ice upward to clear the top of the piles, sometimes they would fall on their edges and become embedded upright in the pile. The result looked like an snow cemetery with tombstones made out of ice.
While I clearing around the car, all of the ice and snow on the metal roof suddenly exploded with an avalanche that impaled or pounded the area in front of the house with a vengeance. In addition to providing yet another example of the tipping point phenomenon, it also reminded me of why I don’t allow the animals out when I’m cleaning up after a storm when the temperature’s rising. And why I’m nowhere near the roof at those times, either!
And finally, in less than a 24-hour period, the trees went from having a heavy layer of snow from the last storm, to losing that and gaining a layer of ice to losing that and being completely bare for a few hours, then ending the day with a light coating of fluff they picked up after the storm. Can’t help wondering if they were as confused by all these changes as the rest of us.
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