Home Again

Two nights in a motel with the girls so I could get them off at 5:44 this morning. Snow event Saturday, so we stayed in town Friday night as well as last night. Train was two hours late, so we went back to the motel and had the free Continental Breakfast, then back to the station which was more or less like one of those rain shelters at a school bus stop. Watched movies on TV, ate sushi and pizza, laughed a lot. Great visit. They're off to NYC for a week. Stopped by the museum this morning, to check out the damage from the wedding reception Saturday, and it wasn't too bad, except for the artificial snow and glitter. Fucking glitter, man. Not much snow in town but four inches on the ridge, so I parked at the bottom and hiked in with minimal supplies (Irish Whiskey and tobacco) wearing crampons for the first time this season. Need to split wood tomorrow as temps below freezing all next week, lows in the teens at night. I'm second on the list for an apartment in the building I most desire, so this chapter in my life may be coming to an end. I'll miss the extreme contact with the natural world, but I won't miss the shear brutality of it. Beautiful though, the undisturbed whiteness of new snow in the forest. When I attain the ridge the house is so cold I can sweep up the ice and snow I track inside before it melts. Less than a week ago I was using air-conditioning and now I can't get warm. Virgin snow is eye candy, but the piercing wind I could do without. I harvest some clean snow for water. Nothing makes much sense. So exhausted I have to take a nap, when I wake up, I just catch the fire, stoke the stove, and silence reigns supreme. A new dusting, but in this cold, it's merely powder; fluff that is blown away by the first passing car. Nothing I can't deal with. Winter camping is a state of mind. Getting those elephants across the Alps. It all comes down to logistics. What you thought you meant.