and the night before that, and ...
Showers at night aren't such a bad thing, although we've finally gotten to the time of year where it's dark at drive-time again. The trees have mostly turned various shades of yellow and orange, with the occasional red highlight here and there. In another month, the mad rush to get the studded snow tires put on for winter. For better or worse, that's an absolute necessity here, as anyone who's ever slid helplessly through a red light while praying not to get creamed by cross-traffic can tell you. We don't get ice so much as we have a few inches of very hard-packed snow which closely resembles the bobsled track in the Winter Olympics. Studs work very well on such surfaces, thankyouverymuch.
As we enter the Tunnel O' Winter, the darkness isn't necessarily a bad thing, either - the swirling snow* is pretty in the headlights. I love the crisp feel of the air when it's at minus 20 or colder, although the lack of humidity at those temps can dry your eyes and throat in short order. But we acclimate quickly, and I find by the third day of such temps that I don't even close my parka. It's refreshing, to me.
Go ahead and call me Nanook, polar (or grizzly) bear, or what-have-you ... but I love it. The snow sparkles in the sun like fields of diamonds, and the air is so clear it seems you can see forever. Seeing the winds blowing plumes of snow off the peaks above town ... the hoar-frost so thick that it makes everything the same color ... the snow crunching under my boots when I walk ... the excitement on the faces of skiers and snow-boarders as they head up the hillside to the ski areas ... lakes and creeks frozen over, and ice-skaters have such fun ...
It's lovely, and can't imagine living anywhere else.
* No, it's not snowing in town; only in the mountains at the edge of town. But we'll have snow on the ground in another few weeks. That's just part of Alaskan life.
John 12:24 "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit."
2 comments:
i kinda like this word picture that comes to mind as you describe winter. From R. W. Service, of course. The Ballad of Blasphemous Bill
You know what it's like in the Yukon wild
when it's sixty-nine below;
When the ice-worms wriggle their purple heads
through the crust of the pale blue snow;
When the pine trees crack like little guns
in the silence of the wood,
And the icicles hang down like tusks
under the parka hood;
When the stovepipe smoke breaks sudden off,
and the sky is weirdly lit,
And the careless feel of a bit of steel
burns like a red-hot spit;
When the mercury is a frozen ball,
and the frost-fiend stalks to kill--
Well, it was just like that that day
when I set out to look for Bill.
...
That sounds like an ideal way to spend a few months, without the driving, of course. Love snow and cold!
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