Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Winter Solstice

We’re in the throes of the longest winter storm in 40 years…layers of snow, ice, snow, and more on the way. This is an area where mud thrives—rain is our forte.

Many areas have come to a standstill—cars without chains or all-wheel drive have been abandoned right and left. In other winter-competent states, those cars wouldn’t be on the road, but like I said…we lack winter savvy.

The scene outside my window is beautiful, destructive, awe-inspiring. Some of our trees are works of crystalline art; others bow to the ground, paying homage to Mother Nature. One is split in two—a crepe myrtle that evolved in sunshine and warmth. Friends and neighbors have lost huge trees—everyone has a lot of work to do when the sun returns…

Our birch trees are suffering most, which saddens me, but my husband is doing a little happy dance. He’s wanted to replace them for years—he likes sterile trees which drop only leaves. Maybe I’ll surprise him with a Sweet Gum for Christmas…

J.A.M have sledded, built snow walls, thrown snowballs and sledded some more. School was cancelled all last week, which seemed exciting, until the constant togetherness brought out their dark sides. The joys of Christmas are being stretched to the limit, or maybe that’s just my mental state…

The beasts enjoy the snow to a point. They dig up ice chunks, which reminds them of digging up rocks, and they chase the kids around. They’d rather be basking by the fire though, dreaming they’re in the snow digging up ice chunks…

The cats go into shock every time we open the front door. They should have adjusted by now—it’s been over a week—but cats are egocentric. They want to go outside, they refuse to be cold, so voilà, the foreign white stuff should be gone. Trinity ran out in desperation yesterday. Within seconds, she was back at the door, wild-eyed, almost catatonic—too many more days of this, and she’ll need therapy.

And then there’s Neo…a cat whose uniqueness defies description. The Beasts would like to snack on him, but he’s convinced of his canineness. He plays in the snow, jumps in the snow, poops in the snow, all while The Beasts salivate, pondering what a delicious hors devour he must be. Obviously, we keep an eye on the situation when they’re in close vicinity…

I’ve used the past week to catch up on my life, which led to this moment, an actual blog post. Just think of the writing time I’d have living in Alaska or Canada or Greenland. My family refuses to move though--that viable solution isn’t an option…sigh…

Belated Happy Solstice, my friends—stay warm, safe, dry....and never underestimate the power of Mother Nature.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Welcome back! You were sorely missed. Happy solstice to you too my dear friend. C UT