January 18, 2009
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I was mistaken when I said I’d been wrong.
I had expected it to freeze last night, but when I got up today it was raining and I thought I’d been wrong about the freeze. That lasted until I stepped out the door on the way to the store this morning and heard Doug scraping ice off the car windows. I did my flat-footed, bow-legged Eskimo walk over paths with the traction of greasy ball bearings and helped him scrape away a pebbled layer of ice before we hit the road.
Everything was slick: paths through the yard, driveway, back roads, highway, parking lots. People discuss the weather as we always have, but this time we’re a little sheepish about complaining of the warmth and rain after having bitched for weeks about the sub-zero temperatures.
At the spring, it was obvious that previous users had spread sand, ashes, etc., for traction, but the freezing rain had buried it under a slick layer, just like it had glazed over the gravel strewn on the packed snow layer in the parking lot at Camp Caswell. We were prepared, with a half bucket of ashes saved from home.
The pallet beside the waterhole was slicker than Doug realized, and he did another pratfall, coming down hard on his elbow.
It is evident here, to those who are familiar with the usual appearance of the spring, how much the ice has built up around it.
When the water was in the hatch, before we got back into Blur for the trip home, I asked Doug to get a shot of me. He tends to wait for me to pose, and I tend to talk and move and encourage him to catch something natural and candid. We got several great laughs out of it, but no very good photographs.
Comments (12)
you are one gutsy woman, no way would i live like that, something in your past life must be coming back to haunt you – hope the new year brings you warmth, and good health
@Thoughtsto1self - ROFL “coming back to haunt” me! I love my life here. Things and people from many past lives have come into this lifetime to enrich it. I came here by choice, and stay because I don’t know of any better place to be. I’m just glad that so many people view it as you do, so this place doesn’t become more crowded than it already is.
Tell me honestly, when you read what I write, do I sound discontented or unhappy? Maybe it has been too long since I wrote about how much I hate cities, crowds, and the artificial crap that pervades civilization, or about how sweet it is not to have a job, a boss, a landlord…. I have what I value: freedom, clean air, clean water, wild things….
you sound and look wonderfully happy – I just hope Doug’s elbow isn’t hurt bad. hugs, Sassy
Hope Doug is okay. You look like the area agrees with you and that’s what really matters. I still miss Alaska.
When you write you sound happy and joyful in your life. I think you are home and happy to be there
I
your shirt! 
It must be warmer if you’re outside in just a hoodie.
How’s Doug’s elbow?
@Sassenach_org -
@History_Nut -
@spinksy - Doug says his elbow is fine. Apparently, he landed in a soft patch of slush. He is currently sleeping off a migraine.
@Adventures_of_BadNana - ”…home and happy to be there.” YES!
@lupa - Greyfox gave me this shirt… says he thought of me when he found it… in a dumpster, I think. It’s a hoodie, polar fleece, embroidered, with satin stripes down the arms, and Velcro tabs to snug the sleeves at my wrists, very classy, and truth in advertising, too.
Where can I get that hoodie?! Poor Doug… He needs shoes with spikes. Boots with spikes? Perhaps some of those spikes that loggers use. Something. Two falls in two days, oi.
@Automaton_Emotion - The shirt is apparently still around, eBay and elsewhere. Some people think it insults mental patients. As a former mental patient, I guess I’m qualified to wear one.
@SuSu - Some people are more sensitive than they need to be, really.
Thank you for answering my questions…even though the replys were cut short on the photo comments…I received it all in my emails…Sorry about my sudden interest but I have only been on xanga for about a month now and have been reading your blogs about that long as well. I didn’t dig into past blogs, just the current ones you have posted. I find your life there interesting. It seems to be such a rough territory to survive in therefore making it look as rough to live. I understand about your water supply now. I work at a water plant to provide safe drinking water to the city of Tulsa in Oklahoma…we service 10,000+ residents as well as pipe water to smaller communities. Our water source is surface water. Again thank you. I admire your courage and zest to live in such a place.