We Gotta Butcher Shop!

Yum!

Jacobson’s Meat Market is a bit of an institution in Chippewa Falls, our neighbor to the north. So, I was extremely excited when I walked to the hardware store this morning and found that they had just opened shop right next door. I love to be able to support smaller local businesses and especially smaller local businesses that work with local manufacturers and farmers. And, of course, the meats and other foods they sell are all top notch.

Maximum Sunshine

Chippewa River. Eau Claire, WI

I’m originally from the Seattle area, AKA the darkest place in the lower 48. Which isn’t so great when you have a fairly whopping dose of Seasonal Effective Disorder.

When I decided to move out of the Pacific Northwest moving to a place with more light in the wintertime was one of my top criteria. My moving to Wisconsin sometimes puzzles people. Why would someone with SAD move somewhere it’s so cold? The answer’s pretty simple: SAD is about lack of exposure to sunlight, it doesn’t have anything to do with temperature and as someone that likes winter (as long as it’s sunny!) I can get outside and get plenty of light almost every day. The best way to represent this is what’s called Mean Monthly Sunlight Hours. The top chart below shows Seattle’s amount of monthly sunlight, the bottom numbers are for Minneapolis, 100 miles west of here. Look at January: over double the light in MPLS! Of course if you hate cold and snow Eau Claire’s probably not for you.

Overall, as long as you like going outside and don’t find cold weather horrible a place like Eau Claire can work just fine with SAD.

It Was Cold, Dark, And Damp, So I Went For A Tramp

On most Sundays I go for a spin on my bike, but today started out with heavy overcast, temps in the mid-20’s, humid, and damp. The idea of spending two hours on a bike in that sort of weather just doesn’t appeal to me at all. With the humidity up once you get a little sweaty you stay damp and it’s just hard for me to keep warm and I think it feels miserable. So, I went for a two hour tramp around town instead. And, of course, I took a couple pictures.

***Edit: outside, it’s currently 25 degrees with 99% humidity.

Putnam Park
The Chippewa River, Pablo Center, and downtown

Quote Of The Week

“On my 70th birthday, I was asked how I felt about mankind’s prospects. This is my reply: We are behaving like yeasts in a brewer’s vat, multiplying mindlessly while greedily consuming the substance of a finite world. If we continue to imitate the yeasts, we will perish as they perish, having exhausted our resources and poisoned ourselves in the lethal brew of our own wastes. Unlike the yeasts, we have a choice. What will it be?”

Farley Mowat