Friday 3 February 2023

Anyone for a Mackinaw?

 

A loading of icy rain.


It is cold out there. When I was out on our porch for my post-prandial cigarette (Yeah, I know) it was -26°C, translating to -11°F and it is supposed to get even colder later on. I zipped up the coat I wear out there and covered my head. I was, however, still in my Birkenstock sandals and I may have to change them for fuzzy slippers at bedtime, the next scheduled trip into the Vortex. (Or whatever) I was, as I zipped, reminded of a silly song I learned around a campfire in my misspent youth, about a logger. One verse goes, as I recall, ‘At forty degrees below zero, he buttoned up his vest.’ It does not say which zero in the song, but when I was that young it was Fahrenheit. Okay, can’t spell that. And since I have to go and find the spelling, (I forgot the first ‘h’) I will find a link to the logger song, just for your enjoyment.

Here is the reference for the Frozen Logger. I had no idea so many people have ‘covered’ it. Here below are the frankly idiotic but fun lyrics in entirety and, of course, I did not remember the line I wanted correctly. Only the AC can do that, with hymns anyway, eh? And why, just in passing, can I not reduce the line values here to save space? Argh. I have edited punctuation and changed a few words for rhythm in this version. There are many.

As I stepped out one morning into a small cafe

A 40 year old waitress to me these words did say...

 "I see, sir, you’re a logger, and not just a common bum

'Cause nobody but a logger stirs his coffee with his thumb.

My lover was a logger, there's none like him today.

If you'd pour whiskey on it, he'd eat a bale of hay.

My lover came to see me, ’twas on one freezing day.

He threw his arms around me and broke three vertebrae.

I saw my lover leaving, trudging through the snow

Up going gaily homeward at 48 below.

                                      I learned this one differently, as:

'My lover he did kiss me, so hard he broke my jaw.

I could not speak to tell him he forgot his Mackinaw. '

The weather tried to freeze him, it tried its level best;

At a thousand degrees below zero, he buttoned up his vest’

It froze clear through to China, it froze to the stars above

At a million degrees below zero, it froze my logger love.

And so I lost my lover, and to this cafe I come

And here I wait 'til someone stirs his coffee with his thumb."

 This is a fine cartoon rendering. 

  It has been a warm if snowy January. We had a thaw that was well above freezing and the rain fell, mostly, as rain. No ice storm, although we are celebrating the twenty-fifth anniversary of our big one, about which you can read (if you must) here. Look at it, I should correct myself. The above is a video. This one should be print.

There were lots of photos, but I can’t resist adding at least one of my own, heading off this less than coherent offering of a post. I will not add a shot of the thermometer. Lots of us are doing that.

The aftermath of the 1998 ice storm.

5 comments:

  1. Oh, Mary. How I wish you could stop smoking. I know, I know, but I have to register my concern and chagrin. XO

    I'm encased in polar fleece and shivering down here in NEO. You Canadians are kind overmuch, sharing your cold weather with us. We are finally to be rid of it later today--yay!--and glad that it did not bring ice and snow. Actually, we've enjoyed bright sun, so we could at least celebrate that.

    I am completely unfamiliar with that camp song. I will say that it has only to drop to about 60 before I reach for a jacket here. LOL

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    1. Have you considered a Mackinaw? I am looking at the one polar jacket of my three that I am not wearing at present and considering handing it out the back to one of our resident deer ... poor things.
      We are supposed to get warmer weather tomorrow. The only thing you can say for this cold snap, besides the clear sky, yes, is that it does reduce the number of times I enjoy my evil habit.

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  2. That cold has made his way here now. Brrrr…

    I hadn’t heard that song before. Priceless! Thanks for sharing!

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  3. Have you been to Mackinaw aka Mackinac Island in northern Michigan. I’ve just passed through and think we stopped there for something to eat on our way to or from The Soo on our trip out west. It’s a touristy and recreational area.

    BTW -40 is the same in both scales.

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    1. I knew that. Yes, we went up to the Island on holiday several times when I was a kid, although my parents preferred 'cottage country'. It used to be lots of small motels, but I bet it is much changed.
      Hope you are feeling better.

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