Survival Mode

Nice to pull back a little bit. It got into the high thirties in town and just a touch above freezing on the ridge. Most of the snow is gone. Loaded Mark and Charlotte off, to take some art away, I don't know where. Tomorrow they return another load. I helped the painters pack up, and they're gone. They even mopped the floor. I started gallery repair, which is an almost mindless job that I quite enjoy. Time flies and no one bothers you. Flooded ice fields along the river, and the Scioto is carrying huge amounts of ice into the Ohio. I'm a traffic hazard, this time of year, watching the drainage. I keep an orange cone in the back of the Jeep, so If I have to stop in the middle of a bridge, I can look semi-official. A cop pulled over once, and asked what I was doing. I pulled out a completely bullshit routine about making sure no snags threatened the abutments and he bought it. I was actually just watching chunks of ice flow downstream. They spin in a complex algorithm involving surface area and rate of flow. A way of telling time. I left at four. TR was talking to Sara and Pegi was sorting papers. I signaled that everything was locked up, and that the last person out had to set the alarm. Another thaw cycle in the forecast, and the house is already a mess. During a cold spell, you tend to track in a lot of crap, leaves and chainsaw debris. I sweep it up, as a matter of course, but the place gets dirty: mud and then ice, mud again, and ice again. Two places in particular, the area in front of the stove, and the floor, beneath the chair, at the end of the table, where I take off my boots, are problem areas. You just do the best you can. During a bout of sub-zero temps, you don't set the bar that high. Climb into your down bag and kiss the world goodbye. A positive aspect of living alone is that you don't have to negotiate, you just do whatever it is that you think you need to do. Today, for instance, I didn't stop at Kroger, I didn't carry anything in, I needed eggs, but I didn't want to carry anything, I just wanted to get home. Build a fire, seek solace, nothing, after all, means that much.