brightlotusmoon:

Ice at Sunset (January 14, 2023)

look I resisted putting this in the tags of that post but I still gotta get it out, you know?

I am not a huge fan of snow either, but it is necessary and important. It creates a layer of insulation which benefits plants and animals. It stores water for spring melt, which many ecosystems depend on. It is a rough spring after a snowless winter (or a less-snow-than-usual winter)

YOU KNOW WHAT WE DON’T FUCKING NEED?

ICE

all it does it break shit. literally takes down trees and buildings and power lines. and people. causes car accidents. causes me to fall on my ass at least once every fucking winter.

I will take an unreasonable amount of snow over even the thinnest layer of ice.

(obv this excludes ice on lakes and rivers. that’s where the ice goes. it’s fine there.)

bread–quest:

only-tiktoks:

[Video description: The video opens with an older white woman standing on a ladder, and an older white man holding the latter. Text over it says “Did your mom ever tell you?!” The woman says “Hi everybody, it’s Babs!”, and the man says “And Mr. Babs holding the ladder!” The camera zooms up and in to Babs as she says “Did your mom or dad ever tell you ‘you either prepare now or pay later?’ You know how to winterize your home? We’re here to help.” It cuts to Babs still on the ladder, holding a pile of dead leaves in a large spoon, as she says “One, after all the leaves have fallen, clean your gutters. This will prevent water damage to the interior or exterior of your home. And if your gutters are easy to reach and you can do it yourself, just use a spaghetti spoon! It’ll collect the leaves and drain the water.” It cuts again to Babs outside her house, pointing at the hose attached to the side of the house. She says “Tip number 2: make sure you shut off the main water source to the outside. Once you do that, remove the hose–righty tighty lefty loosey–and then drain any remaining water.” She removes the hose and holds her hand under the spigot as she says this, and then it cuts to her standing up with the hose wrapped over her arm as she says “This will prevent a burst pipe and a huge plumbing bill. Hoses inside.” It cuts again to Babs standing inside the house holding a large, gray, fuzzy furnace filter as she says “Tip number 3: time to clean or replace those furnace filters. This will prevent super high energy bills. A clean filter will save you 15% on energy cost. Ours definitely needs to be replaced!” It then cuts again to her holding a white, clean furnace filter and saying “This is what the new filter looks like!”, and then her sliding it into the furnace as she says “And in she goes, all set for the winter.” Finally, it cuts to her standing on a chair and pointing at a smoke detector on the ceiling as she says “And the last tip: Good time to check the batteries on your smoke detector and carbon monoxide detectors.” The video is from @brunchwithbabs. End ID.]

As Snow Falls in November,

Somehow, Winter feels like the natural state. The other seasons are bursts of energy, brief, burning to fuel the tenuous continuation of life.

Winter is stable. Winter exists as an absence of energy, like a death. The other seasons, a year’s worth of messy drawings on a white board, now wiped away. Winter is blank, smooth, unruffled.

Winter is the Earth at rest, though the wind blows and the ice creeps into crevices and cracks them wide open. (I cannot deny this.) Yet no other time is as quiet. The sun leaves, and the Earth sleeps. The party ends, and the Earth breathes a sigh of relief.