Polar Plunge Excelsior - a brief note.

For the many persons that are Googling in to this site to get details - all I can say is that registration at the Bayview Center starts at 7. Run starts at 9, and the diving begins at 9:30.

I will post my photos tomorrow, as soon as I defrost.

http://www.bayviewevent.com/links/events.html

A personal appraisal 2009

Today I returned to Lifetime Fitness, to renew my fitness program.

Scenes from the back porch

I know.... this is not a good thing, but it was the result of 12 plus inches of snow and a few days with temps just above freezing.

Earthly antlers

"How vast and profound is the influence of the subtle powers of Heaven and of Earth.
We seek to perceive them, and we do not see them, we seek to hear them and we do not hear them; identified with the substance of things, they cannot be separated"
- Henry David Thoreau

Ride baby ride!

In the windows on Water Street

Santa behind plate glass.


The worlds fastest animal, the Cheetah lies frozen in Tony's Barbershop window.
The snows of Minnetonka.

Currier & Ives - Winter Scenes circa 1850s

Title: The Road- Winter



Nearly 2 feet of snow has settled down on the East Coast today, and here in Minnesota we revel in their December snow-haps, if you catch my drift.

Beware the Pogonip

December 17th in my Farmer's Almanac warns: "Beware the Pogonip". Using my high tech analog dictionary, I have discovered that "Pogonip" is a dense icy winter fog (from the Shoshone language) that hangs in Western US Valleys. Well, Minnetonka may not reside in a western valley, but we do get foggy winter days. So now, along with "seasonal affected dissorder" presenting our psychies with the shortest of days* and least sunlight hours, we have the Pogonip.



(*Northern hemisphere Dec. 21 )

2010 Plunge

The stinging winds and arctic temperatures have stiffened the waters to the point that the "Polar Plunge" will fulfill it’s name. That is my first 2010 prediction.
I witnessed the 2007 Polar plunge in Excelsior, when a seering wind and 12+ degree Below zero temperatures froze my Olympus and tail - it and was simply unendurble - for me. The plungers took the challenge with a more hearty attitude, and were in turn, fished out of the water with hooks and poles like shivering and chattering plungesicles.


....The other day I saw some ice fishermen crawling out to put up their shacks on Carson’s Bay only to be instructed by the Sheriffto leave and return when there was an inch of ice. For God's Sake.
Now, The turgid, lapping waves have been replaced by crackling ice and a dusting of snow.
Plungers beware!

Winter fruit

As we approach winter's longest days there is hope and rebirth:
David Guyot writes:
"My mom's words seem appropriate"

A Promise of Spring by Esther Kaldahl Guyot:

"The promise of spring is already here
Even when winter has barely begun
The buds on the trees, tightly sealed, were in place
Just waiting for springtime and warmth of the sun
To burst their tight buds
and to open them wide
Revealing their secret, no longer to hide
The promise of but-time
and leaf-time inside."

(Please excuse the not-quite perfect photo/illustration)

Checking things twice

Presented with thanks to : Sutton Hill cards

First blizzard 12/2009

St. Louis Bay, Deephaven Beach

St. Louis Bay was the location of the famous "St. Louis Hotel", and the Ice Club Yacht Club of the late 1800s.



Here is my rendition of their haunting presence in the bay. The Ice Yacht Club House burned down January 14, 1904.

The unbearable lightness of Bing.

At the top right "Excelsior!"
I was surprised to see it printed on the CD jacket. I believe Excelsior was a recording lable for many artists of the 40s. Still, it is the season, so I will go with any link I can find. I stopped by Excelsior on "Black Saturday" last weekend an found it hopping with shoppers, or browsers... it was snowless and sunny.

Beached and weather beaten