January 7, 1926 | Cook County News Herald

Before turning to the weather, I would like to thank the City of Grand Marais and its residents for the warm welcome and the appointment as town weatherman. I look forward to meeting many of you in the weeks ahead. I plan to attend the Saturday dance at the Trading Post Rustic Room, where, as a gentleman, I will gladly pay the one-dollar admission. I am told that ladies are admitted free. Coincidentally, the annual cost of a subscription to the Cook County News Herald is also one dollar, which seems a fair arrangement all around.

As for the weather, the coming week will be cooler than the unusual warmth we saw recently. Temperatures reached 45 degrees or nearly twenty-five degrees above the January average. Even so, daytime highs are expected to remain above normal for a few more days. Sunday and Monday should bring stable conditions with temperatures climbing above freezing. This reprieve will be short. By Tuesday or Wednesday, a storm system is expected to move through, bringing colder air and approximately four inches of snow.

In town news, the year’s first baby has arrived, and I do not mean myself. Mrs. Matt Johnson arrived by bus last Wednesday with her infant. On the hill, Sheriff Lien stopped by the tower to introduce himself and inspect the new accommodations. At the school, teachers report that students have returned from winter break suffering a general “lapsus memoriae,” which seems fitting given that English IV has been assigned Paradise Lost.

Starting a new job in a new place brings with it a certain unease. There is a kind of dizziness that comes from possibility, from standing where the ground feels unfamiliar. Kierkegaard wrote that anxiety is the dizziness of freedom. I am beginning to suspect winter causes the same condition. Winter arrives in much the same way; one day it is fall, and the next the snow has settled in. I am learning that the best response is preparation. This week I packed a snowshoe path down the hill to town. It is steeper than it looks.

To pass the time on the climb, I found myself reciting Robert Frost:

I shall set forth for somewhere,
I shall make the reckless choice…
I shall have less to say,
But I shall be gone.

It seems a reasonable way to begin.