Seeing through the flakes

Flakes are everywhere, not just in the House Republican caucus, but the scenery outside our windows is full of the super whiteness of another snow job. Basic clearing of the driveway is accomplished. My new battery-powered gloves worked well, but, fortunately, it’s not really cold enough to test them. If they simply prevent us from experiencing below zero temperatures, they’ll serve their purpose. The last bit of snow cleanup from the  latest storm will be accomplished by a thaw, or early spring, or the next time I get overwhelmed by ambition combined with a desire to play on the tractor. It’s most likely to be the latter if the extended forecast is on target. No above freezing temperatures scheduled for our neighborhood.

The township plow has made one pass, throwing a bunch of roadway snow into our drive and, on the  return trip, knocking our mailbox off of its post. [It doesn’t seem right that property owners are prohibited from depositing snow on the road, but the local government can deposit lots of snow into or onto a private drive.] The mailbox has been reinstalled but, come spring, I think I’ll install a tether so I don’t have to stumble through snowbanks as much next winter. There was no mail delivered yesterday, nor had the road been plowed before we went to bed.

January’s full moon

Photo by J. Harrington

The day after tomorrow is January’s full moon. That’s the Ojibwe Great Spirit Moon and the Lakota Hard Times Moon, per the Minnesota WeatherGuide Calendar. If the skies are clear and the trees still snow covered, the view around 5 pm and later could be spectacular. It’s also the day we’ll start to take down the Christmas decorations. Then, mostly peace and quiet until Valentines? I could do with some of that.

I’ve started to refresh my sourdough starter so “baking season” will soon be underway, again. Although I wouldn’t want to say it out loud, even snowblowing this morning felt mostly good to be up and active. I really must work on getting longer walks into my schedule, typed the guy who can barely manage to remember to do his morning exercises two days in a row. We are now less than a month from winter’s astronomical midpoint on February 3. Maybe by then the House of Representatives will have elected a speaker.

River Snow

Mark Van Doren - 1894-1972

The flakes are a little thinner where I look,
For I can see a circle of grey shore,
And greyer water, motionless beyond.
But the other shore is gone, and right and left
Earth and sky desert me. Still I stand
And look at the dark circle that is there—
As if I were a man blinded with whiteness,
And one grey spot remained. The flakes descend,
Softly, without a sound that I can tell—
When out of the further white a gull appears,
Crosses the hollow place, and goes again…
There was no flap of wing; no feather fell.
But now I hear him crying, far away,
And think he may be wanting to return…
The flakes descend… And shall I see the bird?
Not one path is open through the snow.

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