GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!
Mostly sunny, colder. Yesterday morning the weather service swore up and down it was sunny out there even as I could see nothing but gray sky out the window. Hope you got some sun. Today: let's see how the "mostly sunny" prediction holds up. Meanwhile, a cold front came through last night, bringing temps back to more normal for mid-January. Winds today from the northwest, high in the low or mid 30s, down into the lower teens tonight.A certain light. When it's just right in winter, it's just right.
Here's John Pietkiewicz's view down the Connecticut, looking south toward Norwich from the VT side.
And here's Annemieke McLane's start-of-year view on a walk in Strafford.
Coming soon to your inbox: DaybreakGPT? You may have heard of ChatGPT, the AI "chatbot" developed by OpenAI that can respond to all sorts of questions, from trivia to how to code to a rewrite of "Yellow Submarine" in the style of, say, The Canterbury Tales. Well. One of the items below is ChatGPT's response to a request to write a synopsis of a particular news story. It took 3 seconds. Here's hoping you can guess which slightly edited item it is (it got a meaning wrong). Because I fed the result into OpenAI's "chatbot detector," and it tells me there's an 80 percent chance it was written by a human.Downtown Lebanon retailer heads to W. Leb. Black Moon Games opened in the old Lebanon Village Market building back in 2014, building a following in the tabletop gaming community over the last eight years for its games, toys, and puzzles. In a press release yesterday, owner Tony Vandenberg said that next month, the store will move into "bigger, busier" space in the Panera Bread plaza in West Leb, more than doubling its size. "It’s time to expand and grow Black Moon Games," he says in the release. The current store will close Feb. 5, and the new one will hold a grand opening Feb. 10."Don't be surprised at how much energy, enthusiasm, and collaboration you can draw from your own community." That's W. Windsor's Shelley Seward talking to Scripps News' Chris Conte in a three-minute Scripps video about the revival of skiing at Mt. Ascutney. When the ski area closed in 2010, Seward says, there was "a palpable, almost depression in the community." Conte recounts the ski trails' rebirth: the rope tow brought down from Canada, the groomer donated at a fraction its cost, the mountain's volunteer-driven operations. And, of course, stops by Brownsville Butcher & Pantry.SPONSORED: You can improve someone's life right now! Hearts You Hold is a VT-based nonprofit that supports immigrants, migrants, and refugees in a concrete way. We believe that only the individuals themselves know what they want or need and that it is critical to take the time to ask them. Currently, there are many requests waiting to be funded for people who are trying to rebuild their lives in the US. Needs include everything from school supplies to tools to help paying for a child's surgery. Hit the link above, pick an item (or more) to fund, and make a difference now! Sponsored by Hearts You Hold.In case you need to put a number on this year's snow drought. For the last three decades, Hanover has averaged 16.4 inches of snow in January, writes The Dartmouth's Charlotte Hampton. So far this month: 0.8 inches."We had a slightly above average December snowfall month, but above-average temperatures and a dry spell since the new year have made snow in Hanover seem scarce,” Gavin Fry, a Dartmouth student who records weather observations in Hanover for the National Weather Service, tells Hampton. The result: more Lyme, more winter ticks on moose, and a bunch of unhappy skiers.Dartmouth researchers develop coating that can turn fabric into protective equipment, environmental sensors, even smart filters. The work comes from a lab led by chemistry prof Katherine Mirica, and is based on embedding a copper precursor between the fibers. The researchers found that the technology "effectively converted the toxin nitric oxide into nitrite and nitrate, and transformed the poisonous, flammable gas hydrogen sulfide into copper sulfide," writes Morgan Kelly for Dartmouth News. Not only does it use an "Earth-abundant matter," in Mirica's words, but the fabric's washable.NH IDs woman found dead in Bedford 51 years ago. The story's been getting plenty of play, so you may already have seen it. Link goes to the press release from the AG and state police recounting the history of the case: the 1971 discovery of a woman's body near the 101 bypass in Bedford, the determination that it was a homicide—and then a half-century of mystery about who she was. Now, after two years of forensic testing and genetic genealogy, she's been identified as Katherine Ann Alston of Boston, who was 26 when she went missing—after failing to show up at Logan Airport to meet her family.Pole dance. On his Granite Geek blog, David Brooks is out with some new stats for 2022, and they're not pretty. According to Eversource New Hampshire, the year saw 275 accidents in which a motor vehicle slammed into a utility pole hard enough to break it … plunging a total of 44,000 customers into darkness. That’s about five a week just for Eversource, though some of those customers were back online within a few minutes as power was automatically rerouted. Still, just one more reason not to smash into a pole. As if you needed one.“We are stewards of the land for a brief period of time while we’re here." Paul Bassi and his wife, Julie, inherited 470 acres in the Mink Hills near Warner NH from Julie's father a few years ago, and have since spent their time trying to "promote the growth of a diverse and resilient forest," writes Amanda Gokee in NH Bulletin. Some 75 percent of the state's forests are in private hands, Gokee reports, and foresters in the state tell her that for many landowners, "wildlife and habitat are a top priority far outranking economic incentives related to land ownership." Wildlife habitat in particular seems especially important.NH House Dem leader: "Kitchen table issues are top of mind for my neighbors." Matt Wilhelm tells NHPR's Rick Ganley his caucus is focusing on issues such as energy prices, the cost of housing, and public education. Wilhelm says Democrats hope to block "extreme" Republican legislation by trying to keep "ideological battles" out of the state budget. He also hopes to work with Republican leaders in a "real honest working relationship" and sees potential for bipartisan support on issues like pathways from national service programs to affordable college degrees and careers in the state.“I guess it’s important for us to come out of the woods and tell our story.” For nearly a half-century, Colleen Goodridge and her husband (and, now, sons) have owned a sawmill in Albany, VT. In The North Star Monthly, Beth Kanell helps Goodridge and three other women involved in forestry—two foresters and a logger—do just that. They talk change (the climate, pests, tools like GPS) and the eternal verities of the woods. The workforce of the future, Goodridge tells her, is a constant worry. "We always took it for granted that this was something you learned growing up," she says. Now, "That piece is missing!”The handmade tale. You know how the pros on This Old House and woodworking channels make it all look so easy and everything comes out perfectly? They don’t miscut the top of a little wall cabinet by half an inch and have to rip a piece and patch it on…not that we would know anything about that. Well, Japanese Stop Motion Woodworking YouTuber Omozoc also knows how to make everything look effortless, apparently turning out a lovely tissue-box holder with just his hands and in hardly any time at all. And it only took 22 days and 791 individual photos to make the minute-long video.The Tuesday Vordle. With a word from yesterday's Daybreak.
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And the Tuesday poem...
Just enough snow fell last nightto emphasize what’s there —just enough to highlight the cablesswooping in unison above the roadand to italicize the branches of the treesso that their complex articulationsmight be legible. But what is itI want to read in them? Just enoughto see what’s there a little more clearly?Or a little more than that? I don’t know,but what I see next is the snowbeing blown from the trees in suddenglittering puffs, one after anotherof these literal illuminationsthat swirl down and vanish,dazzling, ungraspable.
—From
by
See you tomorrow.
The Hiking Close to Home Archives. A list of hikes around the Upper Valley, some easy, some more difficult, compiled by the Upper Valley Trails Alliance. It grows every week.
The Enthusiasms Archives. A list of book recommendations by Daybreak's rotating crew of local booksellers, writers, and librarians who think you should read. this. book. now!
Daybreak Where You Are: The Album. Photos of daybreak around the Upper Valley, Vermont, New Hampshire, and the US, sent in by readers.
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