cold

As I write this in the predawn hours it is -29F in Eagle River, WI and +24 in Eagle River, AK. So the temperature in Eagle River is -3F, plus or minus roughly 27 degrees. I am in Wisconsin.

From the window I see the smoke from the wood furnace rising perfectly vertical and new pope white against the black morning sky. Waiting a few hours to stoke the furnace would mean only a negligible increase in temperature and an opportunity missed. There is something about the early morning sky, in the darkest hours before the dawn, that draws me in. It dons a mystical aura when the air is very still and very cold.

So while the coffee brews and with wool socks already on my feet, I slip on tall boots and a few layers of fleece. Arlo is standing by the door looking up at the handle waiting for a gloved hand to do what he can’t, and is the first to bolt out into the cold morning air. He will dash off into the balsams in an attempt to flush out an unsuspecting rabbit, will take care of his morning business and then eventually join me by the woodpile. He lives for mornings like this, and for any other kind of morning for that matter.

But on cold still mornings like this while he wanders the area with his nose, I like to stand still for a bit and just listen to the absolute nothing that surrounds us. Every now and then these very cold morning vigils are rewarded by a loud crack from the ice on the creek below me or from a living tree freezing. Short of that, the clear black morning sky, the same cloudless sky that allowed the temperature to plummet, offers a tapestry of morning planets and constellations that only the earliest of risers witness.

There was a January morning a few years back, similar to this morning in time and temperature, when I noticed Arlo sitting near me in the snow gazing at the stars. I had never before witnessed a dog doing this and it confirmed for me that we were born of the same exploding star.

But as with that morning, my reverie is broken by the growing pain of sharp cold on my exposed face. I open the wood furnace door, rake the night coals forward, and charge it with a tier of fresh logs sufficient to get through the day. Near dusk I will do the same, a bit more generously and with wood more carefully chosen, to ensure a good coal bed in the morning. Then back inside to a warm meal, an evening read and a resting dog. And on the eastern horizon constellations will be rising to begin their night path across the sky, knowing that I will greet them in the morning.