Daybreak Tuesday 1/12/21

GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!

Amazingly enough, a mix of sun and clouds today. Trends are still warmer than normal for mid-January, with highs in the mid-30s, lows in the low 20s. There's a weak disturbance coming through tonight that may produce some snow, but that's likelier to our west and north.Strike yesterday's "kinda." Nature really likes circles. Or maybe that should be "spirals." Case in point: The other day Erin McCabe found these three snow wheels at the base of a tree in Canaan. It's pretty obvious how they happened... but what set them off?Also, straight lines. Apologies on this one: You'll need to be a member of the Upper Valley VT/NH Facebook group. But last night there were light pillars over Lebanon, caused by ice crystals aligning just so. A couple of people caught photos.

Hartford chief resigning to follow family back to Maryland. Before his stint up here, Phil Kasten served in the sheriff's department in Carroll County, MD, northwest of Baltimore, and in September his wife and kids returned to the state so she could care for her mother. Kasten will step down Feb. 5, reports the Valley News's Anna Merriman, and consult to public safety agencies. "This will be the first time since 1993 that I’ve not worn some kind of uniform.” he says. Deputy Chief Brad Vail will take over as interim chief.“Topsoil is getting harder and harder to find.” Which has been a problem for the Lebanon landfill, as it uses topsoil to cover the trash that winds up there. And so, says Marc Morgan, the obvious solution: Create your own. As the Concord Monitor's David Brooks explains, that's part of the reasoning behind the news last week that Lebanon is expanding its composting program to include towns on both sides of the river. Brooks calls Morgan "the odds-on favorite to be New Hampshire Compost Monarch if that title existed."Vital Communities looking to extend VT's "Everyone Eats" program to NH. That bit of news is in Amanda Gokee's profile for VTDigger of Sarah Jackson, who took over the WRJ-based nonprofit a couple of months ago. Among many other things, the bi-state organization coordinates VT's food relief program in the region; it provides restaurant-prepared meals to Vermonters dealing with food insecurity. “Unfortunately, it’s just been a Vermont-focused program,” Jackson says, but with some private funding they're planning to launch a pilot effort in Claremont and then, if more funds materialize, extend it.A bobcat, a sun dog... and, of course, fir nip twigs. It's the second week in January, and out in the woods things go on apace. Elise Tillinghast's game camera caught a young bobcat at one of several nearby caches it and its mom seem to be visiting. Over the Whites, Megan McCarthy McPhaul caught a sun dog (and halo). And you'll also see nip twigs (a sign that squirrels and porcupines are feeding on conifers), get a lesson in why farmers keep herds away from black cherry, why fungus can make maple (and other light-colored hardwoods) more valuable to woodworkers, and more. Dartmouth researchers discover new form of temporary glue. Think of it as extra-strong sticky notes that you don't have to pull apart. The work, writes David Hirsch for Dartmouth News, focuses on a class of adhesive materials that exist as crystals but in the right conditions can shift directly from a solid to a gas without becoming liquid first. It expands "the list of molecules that can be used as temporary adhesives," says Nicholas Blelloch, a grad student working with chem prof Katherine Mirica, with applications in semiconductor manufacturing and other processes that rely on easy debonding.That pile of stones out in the woods? There may be a way to date it now. In the Union Leader, the Forest Society's Carrie Deegan writes about a crew of researchers at Monson Village in Milford, NH, led by state archeologist  Mark Doperalski, testing a way of dating stone structures that's more commonly used to date geologic layers. Because the history of Monson's settlement is so well known, it's perfect for testing the method's accuracy. They're also testing two stone pillars of unknown origin at Bear Brook State Park. One hope: to date old cairns that may be of indigenous origin—or created by settlers.Troy, NH locks town hall doors after threats. The town, south of Keene, has been embroiled in controversy ever since its police chief, David Ellis, attended last week's US Capitol rally but made clear to reporters that he took a dim view of the violence that erupted. The Selectboard has stood by him—Ellis is an “honest, competent, hardworking public servant” Selectboard Chair Richard Thackston said. Now, reports NHPR's Sarah Gibson, people from outside the region have been calling in with threats to the selectboard and town employees. "Since this is radio, they are not comfortable to repeat," Thackston says. Climate migrants will head north and inland, and towns need to prepare. The upside, reports NHPR's Annie Ropeik: new growth in states like NH that face workforce shortages and stagnant populations. But they'll also face pressure for infrastructure upgrades, affordable housing, and other changes, which may spur locals' resentment. Which is why towns like Nashua are already starting to plan. “It’s not that people don’t want new people to come in," one expert tells Ropeik. "It’s that when the systems aren’t set up properly in advance to hold more people, then the existing population can get resentful.” Some NH hospitals administer vaccines more quickly than others. In the effort to vaccinate frontline health workers, reports the Monitor's Teddy Rosenbluth, Concord Hospital and Catholic Medical Center have used up more than 90 percent of their vaccines. New London Hospital, by contrast, has administered just 38 percent of its 310 vaccines. APD is at 73 percent, DHMC at 60 percent. Overall, Rosenbluth writes, hospitals have used nearly 70 percent of the vaccines they've received. Interactive map at the link.

NH now giving Covid testing priority to students, teachers, school staff. Hospitals and outpatient practices across the state will now give appointments within 24 hours to school-community members who have Covid symptoms. In the Upper Valley, APD in Lebanon and Keady Family Practice in Claremont are participating in the effort. Map of testing locations at the link.VT hits hospitalization record. As you'll see below, the state yesterday reported 47 hospitalizations for people with confirmed Covid cases, a jump of 10 from the day before. Ten people are in the ICU. The state won't give details on where patients are from, but there's been one large outbreak of 80 cases tied to Christmas services at a church in Vergennes, notes VTDigger's Erin Petenko.“I feel sufficiently whelmed.” For the last year and a half, Xusana Davis has been serving as Vermont's first racial equity director—with no staff. She's provided trainings, worked with police and state agencies to collect data and develop policies around data, given expert testimony to the legislature, responded to Vermonters' queries, led efforts to translate information into other languages, tried to improve the state's pandemic response among hard-hit communities...and sits on 14 committees. Now, legislators want to boost funding so she can get some help, reports VTDigger's Grace Elletson.Weather, Covid combine to slam ski areas. Skier visits are down 30-70% from last year, VT Ski Association spokesman Adam White tells the Burlington Free Press's Dan D'Ambrosio, most likely due to Covid travel restrictions. On top of that, only about half of ski resorts' terrain is open, given the double whammy of little snow and warmer-than-normal temps. "Honestly, we're experiencing one of the worst two or three winters in the past 15 years," says White. "Vermont has the best snowmaking in the world, but if the temperature is not cooperating, it doesn't matter."Not going to take this seriously until there's deer-scent ice cream. Ben & Jerry's yesterday introduced two new flavors of ice cream geared for dogs: Pontch's Mix and Rosie's Batch, both named for dogs who hang around the office. The first is flavored with peanut butter and pretzel swirls; Rosie's has pumpkin and cookies. No word on what the cat focus group has come up with.Can't they come up with a home version of this for the pandemic? A few years ago, a Belgian company called Skullmapping created a tiny, 3D enhanced-reality chef preparing your meal—or, in this case, dessert. Le Petit Chef was originally a project for a single restaurant, but after this video got out, the company started getting calls from hotels and other restaurants across the world. Understandable: The little guy's pretty entertaining. (Thanks, NM!)

Let's see...

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Car-scent of honey and decay: the slow fallfrom Swanzey to Troy. It has rained, godknows,and rained, these five or six forsaken days,and now the river aplunge, the sky wet plaster,as we drive past the Mills (closed), Minute Mart (open),past Sunoco, the local manufacturerof garden gazebos, past Signs for Less,and row upon row of moss-stained clapboards,

above which, soon, the swifts will come and go, flickingthemselves through the air,unerring

unearthly,air-born experts in the relayed touch,lighter than ash, the mere thought of ash—— "The Ends of Things" by Fiona Wilson, reprinted by permission of the author.See you tomorrow.

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