Keeps Coming

Eight inches by 4:30, no way I'll get to town tomorrow. Rts.125 and 52 are probably ok, but the five miles out of the forest is sure to be treacherous. I have plenty of everything for a extra day and night on the ridge, tinned soup, some roast beef, instant mashed potatoes, an extra can of coffee, plenty of whiskey and tobacco. I put on a lot of clothes and tuck under a blanket; when the power goes out, I have my LED headlamp, to read, fingerless gloves and a hat Linda knitted for me. It's not so bad. The snow is driving in from the SE, which is unusual, I think it means the Jet Stream has altered course. Four hours later, the power is back on. I leave one bulb turned on in the kitchen, so it'll wake me if the power comes back. Rekindle the fire and turn on some back-up heat. Feels warmer, and it is, 35 degrees, balmy. I might get into town after noon. I feel bad I'd told the carpet crew I'd be in at eight-thirty, but there's a lot of snow, and I feel I deserve a dispensation. I've worked hundreds of extra hours recently and I am well and truly trapped on the ridge. I'll get in when I can. I've been trapped by a lot of weather events, it's not a big deal. Hunker down, build a fire, eat something. I'm always reading. I can lose hours at the drop of a hat. Reels, horn-pipes. Listen. Just before dawn thunder storms move in West to East along the river. Massive amounts of melted snow. Flood warnings. Ground fog even on the ridge tops. More thunder, gotta go By the time I log on again, about four in the afternoon, almost all of the snow is gone. Twenty-four hours from eight inches to none. Incredible. But it got up to fifty degrees, and it rained a lot. I shudder to see the driveway on the walk out tomorrow. There's one place where the grader ditch wants desperately to leap across the road. It's at a place where the slope evens out, and fines have clogged the drainage. The fix is to mattock a channel for the water to dig further, and put all of the material as a damn in the lower rut. It's clear when you hunker down, above the situation, what needs to be done. Another line of storms, I hate to go, but thunder is shaking the house.