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Still Snowbound

Submitted entry: All work and no play makes Todd a very dull boy. All work and no play makes Todd a very dull boy. All work and no play makes Todd a very dull boy. All work and no play makes Todd a very dull boy. All work and no play makes Todd a very dull boy. All work and no play makes Todd a very dull boy. All work and no play makes Todd a very dull boy. All work and no play makes Todd a very dull boy. All work and no play makes Todd a very dull boy. All work and no play makes Todd a very dull boy. All work and no play makes Todd a very dull boy. All work and no play makes Todd a very dull boy. All work and no play makes Todd a very dull boy. All work and no play makes Todd a very dull boy.

Yes, you guessed it. Cabin fever has set in big time. No I’m not running around with an axe shouting“Here’s Johnny!” For those of you not familiar with The Shining- go get the movie - preferably both the Stanley Kubrick version and the recent miniseries. Or better yet go get the book. It’s deliciously creepy.)

Anyway we’re still here and still alive and all, and yes. We’re still snowbound. We tried a couple of day sago to get out with the car as we were out of food and propane. But sadlyI made it about 10 feet. We need a thaw and it isn’t happening any time in the forecast. Fortunately a neighbor gave me a ride to town when he went to pick up his wife so I got propane and food and we’re significantly more jolly. The weather isn’t great by most peoples’ standards. The temperature didn’t break 20F today and won’t again tomorrow. Tomorrow night it’s going to get down to -5F, and this morning it was 2Foutside. Wind chills have been in the low -10 to -20 range though we got as low as -50 a few days back which was quite something I can tell you! The result is that our path is glare ice as are the roads. When I went to town we basically skated along in the person’s 4×4 pickup. It did great but a car would have had a horrible time. I figure we could get out today in an emergency with lots of time to dig the car out and a few people to push. The road is clear but icy. The big worry I have is the hill just outside our driveway - it’s very steep and extremely long -maybe 1/4 to 1/2 mile. I had trouble walking down it when I went to town a couple of days ago so I worry that it’ll be a white-knuckled trip down were we not to wait. But we plan to wait as we are well stocked with foodand gas.

Incidentally we now have a new lowfor how low the outside temp has been here. We hit -4 degrees a few days ago. The interior of the yurt in the morning that happened was chilly as the fire was low. Maybe in the mid 40’s which under blankets isn’t bad. However a few small logs on the fire and we were back in short sleeves while the wind howled outside.

We would like to get out sometime soon as we are getting stir crazy as you may imagine. Mostly it’s isolated to fantasies about pizza or a trip to the library, though a few days ago I was dreaming of a hotel room where I didn’t have to tend the fire and could watch television for hours on end while ordering room service.

This laptop, by the way, is definitely on it’s way out. I had to reinstall windows yet again and it still isn’t acting quite right. Fortunately we won an auction at Ebay and are getting a new Pentium 233 laptop with double the memory. After a P120,it should seem like a speed demon! It’s just going to be a bit of coordination trying to get it here. UPS won’t deliver to us so we’re probably going to have it sent to a store in town and then pick it up there.

And we still have no interest in trading this time for summer. Sage and I were talking yesterday as we were listening to Steven Cravis about this. We listen to that music often in the summer as it reminds us of snow and we can have fantasies of cold weather as we sweat ourselves silly. We both agreed that while we very often fantasize about winter weather in the summer and are sure we’ll even look back on this time fondly and maybe even wistfully next summer, we are not feeling like we wished it were summer. All in all it’s being an interesting and somewhat timeless time. Aside from my short trip to town two days ago I haven’t seen civilization for more than 2 weeks now. I don’t count the last town trip as I wasn’t there by my own transportation. In fact I felt much like a prisoner on furlough, even a bit sad to say goodbye to cashiers and friends I ran into knowing that I had to go back here and be stuck for another week or more. I’m guessing we’re stuck here until 2001. But hey, what a great place to be stuck - it’s warm almost all the time inside, we now have lots of food and there’s internet access. Oh, and coffee -regular for me and decaf for Sage. Who can complain?

Is it spring yet?

Monday will mark 4 weeks of being snowbound.