How long were you out there?

Mary Roder is taking the week off to spend time with family, so I thought that I would pinch hit for her today.

Happy New Year! I hope that the new year brings you health, happiness and prosperity. All three are important, but without the first two, the third one is pretty meaningless.

Did you have an enjoyable Christmas? Were you able to spend time with family and friends? It was nice that the weather cooperated for everyone to travel safely.

Let's hope that the weather patterns hold for the remainder of the winter. I think we all can agree that we received enough snow in December to last us until spring.

It's amazing to me how a small amount of fluffy snow, coupled with a strong wind, can transform into huge drifts, leaving bare ground just a few feet away.

During the week before Christmas when we were getting hammered with the snow and the wind, it became a struggle to find places to put the snow. Clearing the snow is always interesting, but chopping down drifts with a shovel so you can use the snowblower makes it an especially 'fun' time.

After the storms and wind had passed, I began clearing out the drifts, which had hardened into chunks. Part of my driveway and the front sidewalk had to be chopped out by hand, and I discovered that one of the auger blades on my snowblower was bent, so I was operating at half capacity.

When you are out in the cold working, the mind begins to wander. As I worked to clear sidewalks and driveways, my breath condensing and freezing on my beard, I wondered what Robert Falcon Scott felt like when he realized he was going to die.

Yes, I know. melodramatic, but one's mind does wander, especially in the cold.

Scott led a doomed expedition to the South Pole in 1911, choosing to depend on horses and technology, rather than the traditional tried and true approach of dog sleds. The prevailing spirit and belief of the time was that man could manage and better nature. The arrogance, echoed in the design of the Titanic, the "unsinkable" ship that didn't have enough lifeboats, in the end was Scott's downfall.

His rival, Norwegian Roald Amundsen, used dogs and beat Scott to the pole by a month.

Scott and four other members of his party did not survive the 800 mile return trip. He and two other members of his team were found eight months after they had died. Scott's personal journal of the trip is a unique blend of British composure, honor and compassion in the face of unfathomable circumstances and slim odds.

At one point, a member of the party, knowing he is near death, tells the others that he is going outside the tent and "may be done for a long while." He is never seen again.

The final entry in the journal, after admitting that he and his remaining two companions have little time left, is "for God's sake look after our people."

OK, I was being REALLY melodramatic when I thought about Scott while clearing snow in single digits below zero temperatures. His party endured temperatures as low as -45º and day after day of raging blizzards, rocky terrain and blinding conditions when it wasn't a blizzard.

Perhaps December wasn't so bad, after all.

But I can't help but believe that each day that brings us closer to spring without snow is a wonderful blessing.

Happy New Year!

As always, I welcome your comments. You can reach me by email at tstangl@lemarscomm.net, telephone 712-546-7031, x40 or toll free 1-800-728-0066 x40.

Thanks for reading, I'll keep in touch. Feel free to do the same.