We hope those of you wishing so hard for a white Christmas are satisfied. Merry White Christmas Eve! Yesterday's storm-induced power outage only lasted a couple of hours. Thanks Xcel! We're glad we didn't have to clear downed branches, or whatever it was, during yesterdays snow and howling winds. Our chore comes later this morning, clearing 9 inches ± of snow from the drive in windchills around -20℉. By the time we've finished, we hope the roads will be clear enough to make our trip to pick up Christmas dinner less hazardous. Grumble, grumble, grumble--our Eeyore side has been brought out this morning. No watching Poohsticks on a frozen, snow-covered river.
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| male cardinal at snow-covered feeder
Photo by J. Harrington
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Actually, we're truly grateful the power wasn't out for longer. As Joni Mitchell sings: "Don't it always seem to go, you don't know what you've got 'til it's gone" [Big Yellow Taxi]. We used the time to look through some photo albums, the kind with real prints, at pictures of Christmas past, when our children were young, and so were we. We're also quite pleased that the storm triggered an appearance at the feeders by a male cardinal, the first one we've seen in weeks. He added a very bright spot in the midst of yesterday's whiteout.
Our fingers are crossed that our new [last year] Husqvarna snow blower will function during and after driveway clearing. Last year the cables and controls kept freezing. Another example of poor design? execution? making things more complicated and less reliable? The dealer has been hesitant to replace the freezing cables so we are hoping no moisture gets into the cables and controls. We may wish we had stuck with Toro. Our fingers are also crossed that Santa lands safely on all the freshly snow-covered roofs and leaves our heart's desires and moves on without injury or contagion. He'll have to take off his mask to eat cookies and drink his milk. Maybe the Beach Boys could do a new classic: Superspreader Santa? Run, run, Rudolph!
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| Eeyore showing off his previously snow-covered tail
Photo by J. Harrington
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Enough of this Scrooge-like nattering, We can do without visits tonight by the ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Future. Eeyore joins us in wishing all a safe, healthy, warm and merry Christmas! He's really happy that he found his tail under all the fresh snow.
Announced by all the trumpets of the sky,
Arrives the snow, and, driving o'er the fields,
Seems nowhere to alight: the whited air
Hides hills and woods, the river, and the heaven,
And veils the farmhouse at the garden's end.
The sled and traveler stopped, the courier's feet
Delayed, all friends shut out, the housemates sit
Around the radiant fireplace, enclosed
In a tumultuous privacy of storm.Come see the north wind's masonry.
Out of an unseen quarry evermore
Furnished with tile, the fierce artificer
Curves his white bastions with projected roof
Round every windward stake, or tree, or door.
Speeding, the myriad-handed, his wild work
So fanciful, so savage, nought cares he
For number or proportion. Mockingly,
On coop or kennel he hangs Parian wreaths;
A swan-like form invests the hidden thorn;
Fills up the farmer's lane from wall to wall,
Maugre the farmer's sighs; and, at the gate,
A tapering turret overtops the work.
And when his hours are numbered, and the world
Is all his own, retiring, as he were not,
Leaves, when the sun appears, astonished Art
To mimic in slow structures, stone by stone,
Built in an age, the mad wind's night-work,
The frolic architecture of the snow.
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Please be kind to each other while you can.
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