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Tiitelleht/Title page
Sisu (osa sellest) /Part of content
Lõpp hea, kõik hea/Happily ever after...
A Christmas Time Winter Story
As in all things which happen during the oh so short days of winter, things, including this Christmas time winter story, must be finished before the sun sets which is pretty early when you are far enough North to see an aurora, that is if you are lucky and get to live at least to ninety seven and a three quarters years. Living that long will improve your odds, a lot. Not so far fetched anymore either to live that long. The trick is to keep your wits about you and only one way to do that is to not watch TV.
Anyway, time is short and of the essence so things this winter had to be expedited. There might be some new phone coming out or the most recent sequel to a book turned movie debut after all.
So we decided to shorten the winter and get it done with. Cut to the chase, so to speak, frost and freeze and mud and slush and slippery roads with black ice and all, with maybe a clear day and minus degree temperatures thrown in. And so…
On the first day of winter it clouded over and got cold. How unusual eh? Of course it’s in the wee minutes before midnight before it starts snowing. Remember this is an expedited winter, not some wild assed blizzard that arrives while you are at work and makes the drive home a nightmare of white knuckles and ice covered windshield because your boss couldn’t make up his mind about shutting things down for the day. We’re having expedited winter this week remember; you’re home safe in bed. So it clouds over, gets cold and snows a foot of fine powder before we ever know it’s there.
On the second day of winter it snowed all day and opened the world up to play time. Throwing snowballs at the dog, at the wife, at the little birds, at the big birds, at the cat and even at the car. Don’t know why the car was fun to throw at, it wasn’t even moving. But it was magical. Deer and hawks and us humans all sitting or flying or walking right out in the snowfall and taking it all in.
On the third day of winter it stopped snowing so it could get as cold as possible and make you worry about pipes freezing and engine blocks cracking and whether the cat and small birds would show up in the spring like members of some ill-fated polar expedition of the 1900’s that get found 110 years later and look like they’re ready for a cup of coffee. Well nothing like that happened. But the ponds froze up.
On the fourth day of winter it got even colder because all the worrying was over. You wouldn’t know if a pipe or engine block had cracked till spring anyway so why not walk on water a while? Had to try out the creek first as it was a real honest to God dangerous and frightening ice covered body of deadly frozen ice over flowing water. If you broke through you would be swept under and pinned, then carried downstream at least a foot or two till your rear end got stuck on a rock and you stood up. But even so you would most certainly freeze up solid because it really was minus 9 degrees and the world was frozen solid. Then it was time for dancing on the ponds and listening to the booming sounds as cracks formed on the surface…
On the fifth day of winter my true love gave to me a day filled with brilliant sunshine. You know the words… So we had friends over to enjoy the beauty of winter. Dinner, wine, bonfire and some more wine and stories and we all called it a day. It was really cold that winter day.
On the sixth day of winter it clouded up again like all winters do but by that time we were in need of supplies. Even expedited winters can get long and we needed some things from the store. Well what winter wouldn’t be complete without having to put on tire chains and heading onto the open road? It took thirty minutes to put them on and ten to take them off, then thirty more to put them on right. Chains are great. What an amazing invention. It was fun in town. Then we came home and went for a hike, a winter hike in snow with frozen lumps on the trails and potential land mines from a winters worth of having your animals on the trail with you. Watch out, things buried in snow don’t always freeze.
On the seventh day of winter we had cabin fever. Would this ice and snow never melt? Do we have enough whiskey to make it through till the sun returns? How are the beans holding out? Any books here I haven’t read twice? This was all mostly true. Fact is though, we don’t drink whiskey.
On the eighth day of winter spring came. A warm breeze came up from the south, some gentle rain and temperatures climbed almost into the fifties. The snow and ice began to melt. Soon cascades of melted snow water flew from the roof while puddles formed behind still frozen dams of ice. Monsoons were never this wet. Over the course of the day every bit of the expedited winter snow and ice melted and flowed into the nearby fields and forests and canyon trails. Winter was over.
On the ninth day it was spring because everywhere was mud, with just a hint of green.'
Posted: December 2014
