Sidetracked Charley

A foot of snow when three inches was forecast. No power. No internet. No cell phone service. Grateful I still have my land line. But I can reach nobody who has a cell phone, even those out of the area, because I deleted the long distance option with Century Link because of the expense. This is like being on Lake Powell in a house boat totally cut off from the world but today it is the snow and not the high canyon walls limiting my access to the world. Because of the heavy spring snow on the hoop house I am having to go out every hour or so and shake or brush it off the covering plastic to avoid total collapse. Note: if it weren’t for the solid ends it would have collapsed already. We are looking at three more days of this. Currently I have a fire going and am thankful I took the extra effort yesterday to bring in an ample supply of firewood. But I am wet and tired and frustrated. At least, before the power went out at 4:35 a.m, I had my coffee made, and had cooked and eaten br...

Halloween Snow Halloween is generally when the ski areas begin to make snow. It is considered a point in the weather that temperatures are such that snow can be kept on the slopes. Halloween is also myth holds when we get a first snow. But it is usually just a teasing snow. A couple inches here and there. But this year it was 10 inches at my house, 12 inches at my friend's house up the hill, and the ski area maintains 16 inches. After last year's non-winter I was totally unprepared for it to arrive this early this year. Firewood had not been delivered and I had only enough for one fire in case the power went off. And it did go off. For almost eight hours in one chunk and then off and on much of the rest of the day. Fall had seemed like it was going to last forever. My attentions had been on putting the garden to bed, and mulching all the beds. Even sowing some seeds for the first snow to cover. Hoop house frame But with the power off an no wood in the ...

No light switches to grey the ebony black Till the night beyond the windows begins to grey And the sun creates a delicate pink Against the blue howl of the wind Left behind by the lightless dark. My world reduced to circles of yellow cast by candles Begins to expand beyond my lantern But not to the global proportions of the internet. The cat traverses between flickering flames How does his tail not catch fire? He toys with his fresh caught mouse while I boil my eggs upon the wood stove My internal clock trying to guess the time While avoiding the question of how much longer with no power Will the water, wood, candles and batteries last. Will the sun break through the now clouds Its light war the studio interior Only shades of Whistler grey are promised I dare the windows to assure myself the winds have not blown the world away in the night. J. Binford-Bell December 16, 2016