“He who tried to get up here to day - and a couple did - met with a pretty stiff set of conditions, both on the snow front and most decidedly, due to wind. I’m not plowed out first, like I used to be where I used to live. So it’s a crap shoot, getting up here in a storm. The mountains have very distinct lines, where everything changes: rain to snow, or snow, to a lot more snow. The weather report has become utterly meaningless. Everything I read in the three days prior to this dumping said things of partial validity or outright falsehood. It’s makes it hard to plan. As it were, my most intrepid worker came in & soft pedaled his request. “You know, the shop vac ... snow blew in ... it would be nice to ... the sheetrock ... “ It’s not unusual for me to be slow to catch someone’s drift. I must have been born on another planet, because humans consistently baffle. It was clear though, within minutes, that I wouldn’t be spending my day as I’d intended to. I’m so often thankful for my zen powers of mental dexterity & for the profound sense of realism that I can attain after all my schemes have been dashed. So I put on the few extra layers I’d need, in record time, and got my ass out there. It was still blowing sideways, and coming down. Sort of an emergency involving moisture in all the wrong places, a tsunami of sticky wet stuff - accumulating on pristine lumber, unfinished windows, power tools, gypsum board, coiled electrical wires & open stud walls. How could I have been so blind? From beside my cranking wood stove in the early hours of the dawn, the storm had come to light with a kind of romantic joie de vivre. Maybe I’m exaggerating, but it was almost like a fairy tale. I figured at worst, I’d be stuck at my computer doing bookwork - at best, I’d go for a ski. It was really piling up. I could certainly delay the realities of my complicated life for a day, couldn’t I? No, everyday is a potential work day, in my life, as sole breadwinner. So out I went with a shovel, & several brooms. I was definitely not in the mood for a shop vac. I think I’m entitled to give up on certain noisy things, as i age. And all those jobs that you think at first you are not in the mood for, again, this lesson of how their simplicity can elevate humanity, is revealed. I’ve shaped my life around such tasks, part from necessity, but that’s not all of it. I can quiet myself, and be whole, around a patch of need. Where something is staked out, or I’m brought in to redefine the parameters, & if no boss is rushing me, I can breathe, and I can see. Where I can adjust my pants & hat, stop to study without anyone shouting at me or gaslighting my way, believe me, I’ll give my all, & heart, without even, ever, thinking.”
