31 (in Earth Years)

On January 23, 2003, the last, very weak, signal from the Pioneer 10 space probe was received. Having been launched on March 3, 1972, the spacecraft was on track for almost 31 years. It was the first spacecraft to travel through the Asteroid belt, and the first spacecraft to make direct observations and obtain close-up images of Jupiter.

I am a fan of science fiction as well as real science and I actually get a kick out of looking up on a starry sky, wondering what might be out there for us to discover. And Pioneer 10 is one of the highlights so far.

Quite impressive, and yet – I have beaten one of those statistics. Contrary to one of the most fantastic pieces of space faring hardware ever built, I managed to celebrate my 31st birthday.
Turning 30 last year was a big deal. Psychologically, it is one of those moments where your life starts to change. Or at least, so everyone expects.
In my case, I can look back at several changes during my 30th year. I got married. I got a new job. Pretty big stuff, you could say. But I have so far avoided growing up or even showing hints of eventually growing up.

Birthdays are funny in the way that they are perceived as actual occasions. I love them, don’t get me wrong, but they are an odd construction, aren’t they? I mean, if the Earth had been any faster or slower in its rotation around the Sun by even a third of a percent, the year could have been 364 or 367 days long, and suddenly, birthdays would follow that rhythm instead.
And seasons aside, very few things really follow the cycles around the Sun. I change only slowly as part of the growing up that I deny takes place, or through sudden events, like when I first met my wife. It rarely follows a 365 day pattern with an additional day almost every four years.

For the first time ever, I celebrated the day with my wife (the first of my birthdays since the wedding). Breakfast from the local bakery gave a nice start to the day. And it also ended rather well, with dinner and a movie. At my request, we had sushi. I mention this only because everyone who knows me has asked if it was my idea, since they know me as a picky eater. But yes, sushi is one of those things I had learned to love over time. Hopefully, that is not a part of growing up?
After dinner, we saw the last instalment of the Pirates of the Caribbean-franchise. Seeing a film about pirates helped me keep up the illusion that getting older doesn’t mean getting wiser or more grown up.

Snow!

On November 1st, I found myself reading one of those free newspapers someone has decided we need. I was almost at my stop, when I saw a small fact box proclaiming that October was the warmest ever recorded. With an average of 12.2° Celsius (54° Fahrenheit), we had beaten the previous high by 0.2 degrees. I wasn't surprised as October had been very warm for the season, and I liked that thought as I packed up the newspaper, donned my hat and got ready to walk out into the...
Snow!
After the warmest October in recorded history, the weather had decided to start off November with snow. I could hardly believe it.
It didn't last. In fact, the snow that morning didn't last until lunch time and November set another heat record. December may very well be the same.
But on my way down the stairs at the station that morning, I saw a big poster proclaiming that «The snow will start falling on November 3rd». Now, this wasn't a failed attempt by the Weather Service to warn us (and being wrong by two days). You see, «Snow» is a word with many meanings. It usually refers to the crystals coming out of the sky that morning in the beginning of November. It can also be a reference to a special white colour. Or sometimes it can mean the static you get on your television. Or of course it can mean cocaine. But in Danish, it has one more meaning.
The Danes have two unofficial days of celebration that you won't find in any calendar: P-day and J-day. Don't worry about the letters, as they refer to the Danish words for Easter (Påske) and Christmas (Jul). And on those two days, the annual Easter beer and Christmas beer is launched. And Christmas beer can be reffered to as «Snow». In other words, the poster simply meant to tell us of the coming of Christmas beer.
An urban legend is that eskimos or Inuits have hundreds if not thousands of words for snow. That is most likely just that - an urban legend. But to turn it around, Danes have at least one alternative meaning of the word snow that you won't find in dictionaries.
Cheers and happy holidays.