It is impossible to not notice Wisconsin is being polar vortexed once again. Today the high will not be going over zero and most reasonable people will be, in one way or another, gathered around some metaphorical stove grasping for radiant heat. This vortex affair also seems to bring with it a brisk whistling wind well capable of keeping the fishermen off ice, and winter travelers huddled and hiding.
It blew in from the north, pushing aggressively south, leaving the local area smack in the middle of the most fierce force of nature. It is hard to know whose idea it was to do this but one would suppose it has something to do with Mother Nature----and her children. It is clear she, and I say she, not in a derogatory way nor with a sexist attitude, but in an affectionate tone not wanting her to target us again as if we were an unappreciative people. However, it seems this has been an interesting year in terms of El Nino and there may be some indication “The Boy Child” has landed a right hook, maybe because he thinks we have been messing with the weather by using the atmosphere as a dumping ground for our garbage.
That would imply mother nature and her children, El Nino and La Nina, have the ability to think, that is react to a situation. The Mother of Nature gets honked off so she sends her ill-behaved children out to slap us around. Yes, this is nothing real new because this behavior has been going on for a long time even though she does seem to be having more disciplinary issues with the two snot-nosed brats.
It is also possible Mother Nature is also calling in a distant relative, El Vortexorino, who has for eons been hanging around up north just waiting to drift off to the south and dump on the same irresponsible people who are warming up the arctic with the same waste disposal issues. I can almost hear the banter, “You mess wit me and I’m gonna come down der and do some damage to youses pretty faces. You hear me.” While this is not the best scientific analysis, it would seem there may be some truth here.
For the moment, the Vortex has to be tolerated, maybe admired for it’s ferocity, and confronted with strict determination. We shall all walk into the wind, bundled, pockets aglow with heat packs, and limbs and bodies wrapped in down clothing, and constitutions committed to living in the this land of diminished light and intense cold. Each morning, the warm coffee and tea must be held tight in our holding hands knowing it will fuel us on our way into anything Mother Nature and her lousy, unkempt children and friends can offer. We are not about to be offended. We are strong.
There is little need here to be reminded of the saying from the 60’s, “I used to struggle to find out where it was at, then I realized the struggle IS where it is at”. Thus meaning, we all need to just step out there, embrace the cold, feel the sting of the winter wind, knowing it is the call of the wild, it is that which makes us strong, makes us know we are alive and if it does not kill us it will make us stronger humans.
This morning as we awoke here in Florida it was almost impossible not to notice the creeping chill that had filled the house. The central living space had dropped to sixty-eight and outside the thermometer said a bitter fifty-seven. To top that off, the news station out of Miami claimed it was only getting to the low seventies today. It has been so difficult reading about the cold knowing our fishing would require light jackets.
El Nino had brought this server weather to our party as we huddled around the breakfast table struggling to decide if we should initiate the fishing expedition under theses daunting conditions. We had to be strong and the thought of the winter wonders going on at home in central Wisconsin made it even more difficult. We so wanted to be back snowshoeing across the frozen tundra and fishing on hard water, bringing in the firewood, and scrounging for the last of the frozen turnips in the root cellar.
In a fit of desperation in the sixty-three degree temperature, we drifted out into the gulf in pursuit of Snappers, Sheephead, and Snook. The taught lines of our flyrods almost appeared stiffened by the push of the breeze. The waves thumped against the side of the small dory boat adding to our struggle. But in reality, all the years of character development in the north woods of Wisconsin prepared us for this outing, this fight against mother Nature and her children, this intense effort to catch fish under such conditions. More troublesome, however, was the idea that tomorrow we were headed back to Milwaukee, then to Amherst, where we again would have to deal with another form of reality----the northern part of the polar vortex.
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