Getting By

I have a new attitude toward cold, mostly I ignore it. As long as the temperature is above freezing inside, I can deal with it, simply a matter of how you dress. I might look funny, but what does that matter? The Pillsbury Dough Boy plodding through deep snow. Love is like a faucet, let it drip. I got the blues so bad, it hurts my feet to walk. Night and day. I was feeling truly terrible, walking in last night, one foot in front of another, but I finally got to the top, realized I could make it to the house, shed myself of frozen boots, start a fire. But the walk in today set the bar. Above freezing for the first time in forever and the remaining foot of snow was rotten, like walking in molasses, and I was carrying a pretty sizable pack because more snow and cold was predicted. They seem to be backing off that forecast, as the jet stream seems to have moved up to Columbus, which would leave us hereabouts with rain and another mud freeze/ thaw cycle. What fun. Didn't get enough done at the museum today, odd for me, but I kept getting called off task, distracted by people with questions. Beautiful day, sunshine, I knew the hike in was going to be heroic, so I stopped at the pub and begged an early happy-hour beer. They were happy to comply, since I eat lunch there every day, and it was pleasant, to linger over a beer, talk with the owner, flirt with the barkeep. The lake was a sea of slush, the ducks were happy to see me with my bag of stale crackers. The thing about an enameled steel roof, is that the accumulated snow releases all at once, and when I get home the back porch is covered two feet thick. It has compacted, in the falling, and can't be swept away, and my shovel is in the truck, where I keep it for digging out. House-shaking snow slides rock the house through the early evening, before temps fall below freezing. Very like an earthquake, what else can shake your house this way? Not likely I'd be rammed by a whale at this altitude, and a total distraction. Waiting for the next foot to fall. There's no way to prepare for completely random events, they always catch you off guard. I do a perfect fried egg, over easy, most of the time, but the last quake caught me mid-flip, and the egg ended up in my shoe, Don't wish this on your worst enemy. There are rules of engagement, or at least there used to be.