Wake up already!!!! February 13, 2024
I was in the middle of my morning constitutional on the
toilet when the phone rang – well before the 7 a.m. alarm, and so, I had to
answer for fear it might be bad news from my ex-wife and daughter.
It was the Home Depot delivery man, who was due to deliver
some wood for a repair we were making in our sun room.
I thought he was confirming the delivery for later in the
day.
“No, I’m here, I’m outside,” he said.
Outside? Now? I glanced out the window at the back yard. The
long predicted snow had arrived and was still arriving, just covering the ground
at this point, but sticking and getting heavier. Home Depot had predicted
delivery for between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m., not at 6:15 a.m.
Yet, I understood why when I flicked on the radio and heard
the forecast had changed, and the two to four inches they told us last night we
would get today had suddenly become 6 to 9 inches, and the delivery guy
apparently needed to unload the 11 boxes (very, very heavy boxes) before the
roads became impassable – Nanny McMurphy, are idiot governor, telling us all to
stay off the roads.
He thrives on disasters because he gets to tell other people
what to do and not to.
The delivery man dragged each box up to our front door which
I wrestled into the living room where the pile mounted.
I had not even had coffee yet, nor fed our cats (which has
scattered at the intrusion of a stranger). By the time the deed was done, I was
exhausted and ready to go back to bed, but already too awake to do so.
I fed the cats, a few of which refused to come out of
hiding, then collapsed in an armed chair and watched the increased volume of
snow outside, our first serious snow storm this year, finally fulfilling the
panic mode forecasters have been so desperate to adopt but could not with the lack
of precipitation over the last two years (we got rain, but very little snow).
Not quite a white Christmas. But with the governor’s order
to keep free of travel, it felt like a holiday.
But it is a sad holiday, since it marks the 25th anniversary
of Peggy’s suicide on the eve of St. Valentine’s Day.
I had planned to leave roses on her grave. But because of a
number of factors that had delayed me from going to see my daughter over
Christmas and fear that snow would still be a problem in her neck of the woods
if I waited, I went there on Sunday instead. Now, the snow kept me off the
roads, and I’ll have to wait until next Sunday to pay tribute to a woman I once
deeply loved.
Most of what I need to do for work, I can do by email,
provided the internet doesn’t fall apart like it often does during inclement
weather – which would have been writing and saving for a time when I can regain
access.
I actually like snow and appreciate this storm because it covers
many of the mistakes of the world, shrouding the landscape with a pureness we
rarely see in this part of the world (with or without the Climate Change nut
cases spouting their crap). So, at some point, before it all gets slushy or dirty,
I’ll go out into it, lift my head, and utter something that might sound like a
prayer, giving thanks for the world and its ability to change, as well as for
my ability to adapt. For the most part, life is good.
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