Reduced to Talking About the Weather

I suppose I should say something about the weather, although it’s hard to think of anything particularly interesting or insightful.  The temperature only got up to 15˚ F yesterday.  This was a new all-time record for us here in El Paso.  I have certainly never experienced anything like it in my lifetime.  Right now (10 am), it is 5˚ F, and the temperature is not expected to climb out of the teens.  Almost everything is closed, and I have not gone anywhere in days.  Our water pipes are frozen, and I hope that they haven’t burst (as that could be very bad when you live in a mud house).  The semi-tropical foliage that surrounds us (including orange trees, lantanas, oleanders, and others) has certainly taken a beating and will probably not survive.  Some of the trees and bushes are decades old and have been through “cold” weather before (cold by El Paso standards), but nothing like this.  A good portion of the U.S. has been suffering blizzard conditions, but this is really a first for us.  El Paso is known for its bland weather (except for the very hot days in summer—but there is little humidity, so they are generally bearable).  I think of the homeless people that I know, the elderly poor, and of our brothers and sisters in the colonias of Cd. Juarez.  This weather brings misery with it for those who cannot adequately protect themselves.  I’m sure my friends down at the Rescue Mission have their hands full.

I wanted to mention that long-time compa and fellow Paseño (now living on the West Coast) Rafael Jesús González has a very powerful tanka on his website for the Year of the Rabbit:
 http://rjgonzalez.blogspot.com/2011/02/year-of-rabbit-4709.html

It was a winter, such as when birds do die

In the deep forests; and the fishes lie

Stiffen'd in the translucent ice, which makes

Even the mud and slime of the warm lakes

A wrinkled clod, as hard as brick; and when,

Among their children, comfortable men

Gather about great fires, and yet feel cold,

Alas! then for the homeless beggar old!

                      --Percy Bysshe Shelly, "Summer and Winter"

Actually, the birds here seem to be doing fine.  The finches and sparrows were calling and chirping in the winter-worn bushes and trees until I brought them a few handfuls of seeds and gave them fresh water that is sure to freeze eventually, even though the sun is finally out.  But alas! for the homeless beggar old!