Something Different

A bit late for work, because I had to start a fire and get it damped down before I left the house. Cold last night and I went to bed early, so I didn't keep the fire going. Then it was overcast this morning and I was snug in my down bag and didn't want to get up. Just D and I at the museum, so I didn't worry about it. D worked on the ceiling repair, I hauled trash, then ran some personal errands, Library, tobacco store, Kroger, to carry in the last of the supplies for the next week. We spent all afternoon redesigning the lighting for the upstairs gallery. We'd had to take down one of the light tracks, and it seemed like a good time to solve some of the problems that have always existed in lighting that space. All afternoon on that problem but we arrived at a solution, so it was time well spent. The first phase (there are three bays, the first phase is the one where we took the track down) will be very inexpensive, because we have a lot of the components for the track and the connectors, AND the light cans for that section. I left an hour early, drove home under a wonderfully mottled sky, something a scenic painter might paint, with broken patches of light in shafts. At the bottom of the hill I repacked my backpack and the Oak Hills Bank canvas bag that I carry in my left hand (mop handle in my right, assuring against slippage and a fall), wrapped a scarf around my neck, put on gloves, and hiked in. It's not a big deal, this is who I am and this is what I do. A different vehicle has been using the driveway, I can tell from the tracks, something with a wide wheel-base, a full-size truck by the looks of it. And it is. When I get to the top of the ridge there's a full-size Dodge Ram backed into B's space, FRE 3299 (I notice license plates) that I remember as B's son-in-law Josh's truck, and I assume that either B's truck is in the shop and he borrowed a ride, or that he bought the truck as a up-grade. I don't really care, and the good news is that I achieve the ridge without being winded. This is not an easy hike, with a full pack and library books, so the very fact that I arrive alive is good news. Snow is in the air. I write for a while, then make a pasta and pesto dish, read the first chapter of the latest Sandford novel, tweak a few commas, and go to bed. Something wakes me, the oppressive silence, and I get up for a drink of juice, flip on the back-porch light, there's a new layer of snow and it's falling at a rapid rate. Snow dampens sound. The silence woke me. The north wind blows. I hope to meet my pilot, when I've crossed the bar.