Yay. I can talk today!!
After finishing my gig at the
Noquemanon Saturday, I tried to keep my voice from doing too much for
the rest of the day. It seemed to have worked; by the time I woke up
yesterday, I was back to being my normal, hyper-verbal self, probably
much to the dismay of Loraine who, I’m sure, would’ve preferred a
little more silence.
But what are you gonna do, right?
As always, I was amazed by the
competitiveness, the ability, and in some cases, the sheer
determination of the athletes at the race Saturday. In spite of the
re-worked course, the lack of snow on some parts and the falling snow that then made the course hard to ski, I
was stunned by the closeness of some of the races and the effort put
out by all the athletes, whether they were first-timers or have been
doing the race each and every one of the 19 years it’s been run.
And having announced at the finish line of race each and every one of
those 19 years, I’m here to tell you that there are a LOT of people
who’ve skied it for all or most of that (almost) two decades. By
the way, it probably goes without saying that it blows my mind the
race just wrapped up its 19th year; seems like it was just
a couple of years ago that 200 people skied in the first race. Now,
it’s almost 1,500 and still growing.
Cool!
The end of the Noque for the year also
means another thing, at least to me. It means we have now made it through what is usually the
harshest part of winter. Maybe it hasn't seemed like it this year (or
last year, for that matter), but it's true, especially from a statistical point of view.
You see, starting over the weekend, the average high for the day has
begun to crawl up ever so slightly. Sure, as of today the average
high is only 22, but you know what? A few days ago, it was 21. And
a few days before that, it was at its absolute bottom, 20. It may
not feel like it, but on average, it’s starting to get a little
warmer. Like I said, this year we've been so over the average high
that it may not seem worth mentioning, but I'm gonna shout it from
the (virtual) rooftops anyway--
Winter (or what passes for winter this
year) is fighting a losing battle against the onrushing forces of
Spring. Yippee!
Oh sure, we’ll probably have more
cold snaps to deal with and more snow storms which to shovel (or snow
blow) out of, but I think an important psychological barrier has been
crossed. We’ve made it through what’s traditionally the worst
part of a winter with our sanity fairly intact. Sure, this year has
obviously not been “traditional”, but that's not the point I'm
trying to make. We can now look forward to the day, perhaps not far
away, when the sun comes out and finally stays out. We can look
forward to the day whatever snow is left in our yards disappears, and
little green shoots shoot out of the freshly uncovered ground. And
we can look forward to the day when we step outside in the morning,
and hear the songs of birds that have started to make the return trip
on their yearly journey from north to south and back again.
And if that’s not reason to be happy
that I have a working voice again, I don’t know what is.
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