Cold

Huge winds hit at 6 PM last night, I'd already decided to stay in town. Rain changing to snow, all snow this morning, sustained winds of 35 mph and gusts to 50 and 60. Sure to have lost power and phone at the house (as it happens, lost power at the museum, but only for a little while). Didn't even go to the pub, just walked over to Kroger, got a Thai dinner and a bottle of my cheap whiskey. The wind heroic, tearing the eyes and cutting through my Carhartt jacket. I would have been trapped on the ridge and I needed to be at work today because of an all day event, involving four musical acts and 150 kids. The school called at 8:30 and cancelled because of the weather. I knew I'd be trapped in town tonight. Another cold, biting day and before it started snowing harder. Pegi's husband, Steve, called and told her not to drive home. She's going to Dayton tomorrow, to do a Cirque performance at the women's prison there. Roads out in the country are bad, but it's supposed to get above freezing tomorrow, so I should be able to get home. Unless TR calls in and says he can't make it to work, in which case I'd be staff and probably have to stay another night, because it would be after dark when I got home and the roads would be black ice. A wasted day, I've would have been fine, trapped on the ridge, and the view would have been ever so much finer. But it's OK, someone else is paying for the heat and I have an Art Library at my disposal. Also hot running water, so I got up early this morning, shaved, washed my hair, and took a sponge bath. Such luxury. I have the Janitor College file on the Mac I use at the museum, and after everyone had gone I got a drink and worked in that for a while. Got to laughing so hard I had a coughing spell; suited up in peacoat, scarf, and Linda's hat and went out back for a smoke. The Pin Oaks the town favors for those circular beds they cut in the sidewalk every hundred or so feet (lined with pavers) were bending at extreme angles. This was a stupid tree-choice, because the surface roots pop the pavers and the sidewalk into a serious challenge. It's amazing how close to the surface your foot is, when you take a step, and a buckled sidewalk is hell.