Home again, home again, jiggety-jig

Monday I was going to have breakfast with Alice, make a quick trip to the Shop-Rite or Stop and Shop to pick up some things that seem to be completely unavailable in Vermont, and be on my way home. But I happened to check the weather and discovered that the threat of “accumulating snow” had moved from the early evening (after I planned to be home) to the early afternoon. That would put me in Bennington with two hours driving to go.

So I packed frantically, bailed on Alice (I’m SORRY, Alice) and was on the road not at 10 am but at 7:45 am. The trip was fine until Bennington, where the snow was coming down heavily and just starting to stick. The drive from Bennington to Danby (20 miles, if that) was just miserable. Driving in freezing fog, folks, is like driving through a curtain of iciness. The wiper blades were instantly coated with ice. Not heavily but enough to make a person nervous. The visibility was poor. I was lucky enough to get behind a panel truck who stayed in the driving lane and wasn’t trying to make time. It was a long 20 miles at 30 mph and I had visions of taking 4 hours to get to Randolph.

But at Danby the nasty weather stopped and I had clear sailing the rest of the way, and even hints of blue sky. Thelma fortified me with coffee and Ernie and I were home by 3:30. No sooner had I unpacked the car than the wind picked up and the snow started again.

And now it’s Arctic season. Winds are gusting, the temps are near zero, the wind chill is somewhere near -15, and under the snow is thick glare ice. I started the car this morning, so it wouldn't go on strike, and when this evening rolls around, I will muster my courage and drive somewhere just to warm the car up completely, because temps are expected to be below zero and that will drive the wind chill down to perhaps -25, although the wind chill doesn’t seem to bother the car. For the first time since I moved here in 2004 it is so windy and cold that I had to wear my good coat (microfiber, quilted inside, huge fur hood) to get the stovewood in.

It’s too cold to take the camera outside. Besides, how do you get a picture of cold weather? Well, I left the dead flower stalks standing in the garden next to the bedroom (many shapes, about 4’ tall) as a “winter landscape”. The wind has knocked them over to a 45-degree angle. Maybe that’s it.

The forecast is for a humdinger of a snowstorm New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day. The temps will go up into the high 20’s (above zero), and the winds will die down. However, “Predictions of 12 inches may be understated”, said the weather guys today. Ah well. Winter in Vermont.

My New Year’s resolution is to see my dear ones more than once a year.