Summary

The author of the article "Snow Dance" expresses a deep longing for cooler weather and reminisces about a New Mexico tradition of performing a snow dance to invoke winter precipitation for the benefit of the local economy and personal respite from the heat.

Abstract

The article "Snow Dance" by White Feather vividly describes the author's current experience with extreme heat in their residence on the Great Plains of Turtle Island, with temperatures soaring to 104 degrees Fahrenheit. The author humorously contemplates the benefits of a forecasted drastic temperature drop to 47 degrees Fahrenheit, musing about the potential to turn off the air conditioner and don long pants. They also entertain the idea of moving to a country that uses the Celsius temperature scale, believing it might feel cooler. The narrative shifts to the author's past in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, where they lived without air conditioning and relied on the local ski resort's opening for employment, which was heavily dependent on snowfall. The author recalls the annual Snow Dance at a local hippie commune, a wild celebration where attendees danced around a bonfire to appease Mother Nature for snow. The article concludes with the author's current desire to perform a snow dance to alleviate the oppressive heat, acknowledging the irony of their eventual complaints about the cold in the upcoming months.

Opinions

The author is skeptical of weather forecasts but is hopeful about the prediction of a significant temperature drop.
They find the high cost of air conditioning during the summer months to be a financial burden, comparing it to the cost of rent.
The author has a humorous outlook on their discomfort with the heat, as evidenced by their playful consideration of Celsius countries and their naked dance in front of the air conditioner.
There is a sense of nostalgia for the communal Snow Dance in New Mexico, which is remembered as an "outrageous party" and a desperate plea for snow to sustain the local economy.
The author believes that Mother Nature is indifferent to specific dance moves and instead responds to the sincerity and necessity behind the dance.
They acknowledge their own inconsistency in desiring cooler weather now but anticipating complaints about the cold in the winter.
The author views the snow dance as a way to connect with nature and as a means of expressing a genuine need for weather change, rather than just a party or celebration.

Snow Dance

Dancing with Ma Nature…

I just checked and the current temperature in the little town in which I live on the Great Plains of Turtle Island is 104 degrees Fahrenheit. The official government weather prognosticators predicted a high temperature of 106 degrees for today. So we are not quite there yet.

Those aforementioned weather prognosticators are usually wrong to at least some degree. But I am really, really, really hoping that they are correct about their forecast for the day after tomorrow.

For Tuesday they are saying that our high temperature will only be 47 degrees (Fahrenheit). I’m a terrible mathematician but I think that is actually less than half the temperature of what it is today. If that prediction comes to pass I may actually go an entire day without my air conditioner on. Hell, I might even have to get out my long pants.

You know, I have on occasion entertained the thought of moving to a country that uses the Celsius methodology of temperature taking. Celsius numbers are always so much smaller than Fahrenheit numbers that it surely must be cooler, right?

Right now it is 82 degrees (Fahrenheit) inside my apartment — and that is with the air conditioner going full blast. (If I were to turn off the air conditioner the temperature inside my apartment would exceed the temperature outside.)

My August electric bill, thanks to the air conditioner, was quadruple what it normally is any other time of year. It was almost as much as my rent! Do I pay my electric bill or do I pay my rent? It’s a decision I face every year at this time.

Earlier this afternoon I stripped naked — which was very easy considering that all I was wearing was gym shorts — and I stood directly in front of the window air conditioning unit that supposedly cools my entire apartment. After about twenty-five minutes I finally stopped sweating. If I had stayed there another twenty-five minutes I may have gotten a wee bit randy.

But I finally put the gym shorts back on and sat back down in front of the computer.

So anyway, I think the astute reader would understand how freaking excited I am by the prediction that Tuesday our high temperature will only be around 47 degrees Fahrenheit. I think the prognosticators were just toying with us but they said early that morning there might even be a very slight chance of snow! The teasing bastards!

This led me to reminisce about those years when I lived high, high, high up in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains of northern New Mexico (above 8,000 feet in altitude) without any air conditioning. It was so long ago. I worked as a stone artist in spring, summer, and fall. Work for me usually ended around Halloween. If I was lucky it went a week or two into November.

Then there was that short period of no employment until the local ski resort opened where my wife worked as a ski instructor. The ski area’s goal was to always open in time for the Thanksgiving weekend. A four-day weekend along with turkey and stuffing apparently means, “ski weekend!”

But Mother Nature doesn’t always use the same calendars that we puny humans get free from our local bank. I remember a few Thanksgivings where there was not a single flake of snow on the mountain. No snow, no work.

So, understandably, every November we attended the annual Snow Dance at the local hippie commune. Everyone called it the ‘Hog Farm’ even though no hogs were raised there and even though it was not the original ‘Hog Farm’ in California, although several famous hippies from California had visited the New Mexico ‘Hog Farm.’

It was an outrageous party attended by a few hundred people, many of which were employees at the local ski resort. There was a river of booze and a lake-full of drugs and there was enough food to feed an army. The festivities eventually culminated in the ‘Snow Dance.’

A bonfire was raging and Earthlings of every stripe and various states of dress would dance around the bonfire like ancient primitive people. They all danced and implored Mama Nature to bring snow so that they could go to work and provide for their families.

Bring us snow!

Seriously, it was a hell of a party. Of course Mother Nature brought snow when she was good and ready to and not a minute before. I remember that one year it did not snow until the week before Christmas. The local economy was on the brink of total disaster.

So now in the rotisserie oven known as the Great Plains in early September I find myself wanting to do the snow dance. Thinking back to the days at the hippie commune in New Mexico I realize that there is no particular snow dance. Everyone just gets totally fucked up and dances around a bonfire in whatever way moves them.

So I don’t have to remember a particular dance. Mother Nature might be watching but she doesn’t care about particular hip dance moves. She only cares about what we are dancing about!

So I am starting to dance, gosh darn it! Just the sight of a few random snowflakes will chill me out to the core. Hell, if I see snowflakes coming down I must just ditch the gym shorts and go dancing naked out-of-doors! I will be so happy!

But then October will come and it will get cold. Then November will come and it will get even colder. Then December will come and it will be like living at the North Freaking Pole! Then I will start bitching and complaining about how cold it is and how I can’t wait for it to get warmer.

See how fucked up I am?

Speaking of heat…

Entrepreneurial Heat Wave

Climate change deniers not welcome

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