Snow, Glorious Snow
Mar. 13th, 2006 10:05 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mlerules Headed up to Big Bear last Thursday afternoon, missing the traffic and impending weather. Finally hit snow at about 6000' - mere smatterings beneath trees and rocks that didn't get much sunshine...enough to feel somewhat Winterish at least. Not much more at the cabin: the usual Northside bit but loads more on the mountains for the skiers. And then...it began to snow and didn't stop for more than 20 minutes 'til late late Sat/early Sun. Spent many a moment (okay, to heck w/it, many an hour) staring out the window, sipping hot beverages laced w/Dionysiun (sp) delights, bundled up in blankets, near the roaring fire, alternatively sitting nekkidly in the jacuzzi, staring out the window at the snow coming down...and accumulating at a rate which didn't start to alarm us 'til too late. No, "alarm"'s to strong a word. Perhaps "concern"'s better. Ya' see, we had a few plans to carry out. Went out Friday morning to buy the futon (size = full) to replace the one that lives on the landing, where I often sleep, that's turned into a lump of clay (or something equally hard and uncomfie) over the past few years. Fit it into the car just fine (this is the 3rd full-size mattress I've transported) and then stuck the car into the garage. An aside: it's FAR easier and preferable putting the chains on inside the relative comfort of the garage then 'tis to remove 'em half-way down the mountain when cars & trucks are whizzing (okay, slowly wending their way) by and it's SNOWING on you.
I'd never - or not in a long time - fully appreciated the different types of snow before. At first 'twas single snowflakes, tiny delicate things slowly falling to the ground. Then they began clumping together on the ride down from the home-cloud, congregating...and apparently arguing 'bout the best path to take 'cause they'd veer madly from one direction to another, wandering aimlessly then spinning in other direction for a bit then heading off down one yet another pathway, growing ever-larger as they met up w/other individual flakes and glomming all together into a BART train (the White Line for RTD) of snow-power. Yeah, I'm anthropomorphizing like mad here...but also beastifizing 'em. For a long while watching them drift and fly back and forth, I'd've sworn they were swarming. Now, if'n you've read M Crichton's "Prey," you'll perhaps understand why my fascination was tinged w/the teensiest bit of fear/dread. Luckily I was INSIDE, huddled near the fireplace, during this particular bit of whimsey, ready to arm myself w/the scourge of fire and do 'em in were they say to start battering against the window. Who says I've been reading too much lately?!
Seeking to dispel my fears - and really, get off my duff for at least some of the w'end - I declared it time to sled at one point.![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
delerium3, to her never-ending credit, went along with my idea. We grabbed sleds outta the garage and approached the pile of snow covering up the front steps w/brave determination. Okay, for the record, I must confess that newly-fallen snow (it'd only been snowing for 'bout 24 hours at this point) is NOT the best for sledding in. A bit of frostiness, a touch of ice, some TIME is req'd to attain proper sledding condition. But this is the voice of experience talking now. At the time, it looked perfect so we went for it. Suffice it to say that the shortest distance between two points in snow is a BIG HOLE. We lunged forward, landed smack on top of our sleds...and immediately sunk feet-deep (head-first) into the snow. Much giggling ensued, not to mention trudging 'round to find a better sledding locale and more attempts to combat the rules of physics and sledding. Finally, chilled to the bone, I gave in (plus, she had far better gloves than I - which isn't to say good ones, but I had NONE and my fingers were COLD),so I went in and made Glogg (that hot spiced Swedish beverage that'll warm you right up) while she made a final assault on the mound by the street sign. Amazingly enough, a few hours later you couldn't even see the new paths she made or the holes she'd plowed...the wonders of snow.
Okay, now without going into too many details (oh, shut it...you've come this far, you can handle whatever I choose to dish out by now), suffice it to say we left it a bit long before finally dragging the futon into the house. The plan'd been to wait for it to stop snowing, which made a certain amount of sense, but by the time that happened, sometime mid-day Saturday, it'd been snowing non-stop and it took quite a bit of shovelling to clear a path so we wouldn't drag the futon through the snow on the (admittedly quite) short journey from the garage to the house. Success! It's upstairs on the frame, looking quite nice and ready for use. Our other errands luckily included obtaining a nice shiny new and GOOD snow shovel to replace the Devil's handiwork piece of crap that'd been twisted & bent by previous users (who hadn't even bothered mentioning its deficiencies). 'Cause after the Friday morning futon-fetching, last-minute grocery and snow-shovel acquisition expedition, we didn't drive anywhere 'til Sunday, when we had to return the videos by Noon or pay nasty late-fees (a sign by the register stated that late fees'd accrue even for those snowed in). It took a solid hour of both of us shovelling the driveway, switching off who got to use the good shovel and who had to deal w/the defective one, but the vids got back in time and we ended up heading down the mountain well before dark.
'Twas a truly delightful snow-filled w'end: recharging, relaxing, reinvigorating. Felt a bit disconnected last night - so many others were off partying and having a blast this w'end doing their own thing (housepainting, gaming, whatevering)...but the disconnection wasn't bad, 'twas just part of a realization that I'm doing MY thing, living MY life, and liking it very very much. Anyway, now I'm back, for a bit, and looking forward to the next set of adventures that is my life. Come along for the ride, if'n you like...
I'd never - or not in a long time - fully appreciated the different types of snow before. At first 'twas single snowflakes, tiny delicate things slowly falling to the ground. Then they began clumping together on the ride down from the home-cloud, congregating...and apparently arguing 'bout the best path to take 'cause they'd veer madly from one direction to another, wandering aimlessly then spinning in other direction for a bit then heading off down one yet another pathway, growing ever-larger as they met up w/other individual flakes and glomming all together into a BART train (the White Line for RTD) of snow-power. Yeah, I'm anthropomorphizing like mad here...but also beastifizing 'em. For a long while watching them drift and fly back and forth, I'd've sworn they were swarming. Now, if'n you've read M Crichton's "Prey," you'll perhaps understand why my fascination was tinged w/the teensiest bit of fear/dread. Luckily I was INSIDE, huddled near the fireplace, during this particular bit of whimsey, ready to arm myself w/the scourge of fire and do 'em in were they say to start battering against the window. Who says I've been reading too much lately?!
Seeking to dispel my fears - and really, get off my duff for at least some of the w'end - I declared it time to sled at one point.
delerium3, to her never-ending credit, went along with my idea. We grabbed sleds outta the garage and approached the pile of snow covering up the front steps w/brave determination. Okay, for the record, I must confess that newly-fallen snow (it'd only been snowing for 'bout 24 hours at this point) is NOT the best for sledding in. A bit of frostiness, a touch of ice, some TIME is req'd to attain proper sledding condition. But this is the voice of experience talking now. At the time, it looked perfect so we went for it. Suffice it to say that the shortest distance between two points in snow is a BIG HOLE. We lunged forward, landed smack on top of our sleds...and immediately sunk feet-deep (head-first) into the snow. Much giggling ensued, not to mention trudging 'round to find a better sledding locale and more attempts to combat the rules of physics and sledding. Finally, chilled to the bone, I gave in (plus, she had far better gloves than I - which isn't to say good ones, but I had NONE and my fingers were COLD),so I went in and made Glogg (that hot spiced Swedish beverage that'll warm you right up) while she made a final assault on the mound by the street sign. Amazingly enough, a few hours later you couldn't even see the new paths she made or the holes she'd plowed...the wonders of snow.Okay, now without going into too many details (oh, shut it...you've come this far, you can handle whatever I choose to dish out by now), suffice it to say we left it a bit long before finally dragging the futon into the house. The plan'd been to wait for it to stop snowing, which made a certain amount of sense, but by the time that happened, sometime mid-day Saturday, it'd been snowing non-stop and it took quite a bit of shovelling to clear a path so we wouldn't drag the futon through the snow on the (admittedly quite) short journey from the garage to the house. Success! It's upstairs on the frame, looking quite nice and ready for use. Our other errands luckily included obtaining a nice shiny new and GOOD snow shovel to replace the Devil's handiwork piece of crap that'd been twisted & bent by previous users (who hadn't even bothered mentioning its deficiencies). 'Cause after the Friday morning futon-fetching, last-minute grocery and snow-shovel acquisition expedition, we didn't drive anywhere 'til Sunday, when we had to return the videos by Noon or pay nasty late-fees (a sign by the register stated that late fees'd accrue even for those snowed in). It took a solid hour of both of us shovelling the driveway, switching off who got to use the good shovel and who had to deal w/the defective one, but the vids got back in time and we ended up heading down the mountain well before dark.
'Twas a truly delightful snow-filled w'end: recharging, relaxing, reinvigorating. Felt a bit disconnected last night - so many others were off partying and having a blast this w'end doing their own thing (housepainting, gaming, whatevering)...but the disconnection wasn't bad, 'twas just part of a realization that I'm doing MY thing, living MY life, and liking it very very much. Anyway, now I'm back, for a bit, and looking forward to the next set of adventures that is my life. Come along for the ride, if'n you like...
