That's the way I feel about the sky today. You know, that great Midwestern sky that I like to brag about. That same one that has cast a shadow over our landscape for such a long time. The weather people promised it would give us sunshine today.
Bullshit. No sunshine. Just more of the same colorless sky, leading me to proclaim at breakfast...
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...you know, it really is quite ugly out there right now.
Ed is shocked. These are not words that I usually apply to our landscape. I backpedal right away: I mean, it's monochromatic.
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That it is. That's the farmette for you, at dawn, as I step out to set the cheepers free.
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(why is it so cold out there?)
It is cooler now, so that our brood hesitates for many hours before making the trek up to the farmhouse.
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Never mind. Enough about them. Time to get mobile. It always surprises me how sedentary we become when the landscape isn't to our liking. Put a layer of snow on our terrain and I'm out, camera dangling. Strip it of any color or snow and I turn my back on it.
Today I force myself to head out.
To my daughter's.
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(a more accurate rendition of my girl with her girl)
And then downtown to meet a friend for a drink. As I take a brief stroll along a city street (Madison is a city, right?), I think that these early winter weeks are the only time when the city does look better than the countryside.
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Our seasonal blandness is hardly noticeable in the concrete and asphalt world of urban neighborhoods.
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And still, I return home to the farmette with not a small amount of pleasure. In the country, you develop this fortitude -- an attitude of endurance. This drab stuff -- this too shall pass. In the meantime, let's fix a nice pot of winter chili and settle in for a warm evening at home.