We’re having wet snow, sleety rain, and falling temperatures that pretty much guarantee a very bad morning commute, even for Miss Sadie and the Cowboy, who have only to go as far as the mailbox and back. Not only do I have no idea at all what to write about, I’m not even sure I can get it posted before some electrical line somewhere decides it’s had enough and just sags to the roadway in despair. When that happens I’m pretty sure to lose power. A couple weeks ago I was in the same fix, and wrote about it . Except for the howling part, I could have written it tonight. Let’s pretend I did.
Living next to one of the world’s great bodies of fresh water teaches you a thing or two about power. Mostly that Mama Nature has it and we do not. But it also teaches that we are a part of it all. Not useless specks clinging precariously to our tiny rock in space, but equal to the stars and the planets, with a place in the universe that belongs to us. That’s what I think, anyway, when the wind changes, as it just did, and begins to howl straight out of the west, as it is doing now. That’s what I think when the mighty lake makes its own weather, when it tears down a bluff or washes in a new beach. That’s what I think when the ice pack creaks and groans.
Yesterday the wind brought down power lines all along the eastern shore of Torch Lake. Tonight it might be our turn over here on the western side. We hope for the best, prepare for the worst. Find the candles, the water jugs, the extra down. Keep warm, keep well.
.
Torch Lake Views 
Andrea Romeyn
February 27, 2009
Hi Gerry! I just spent an hour cruising around Torch Lake Views…inspiring, poetic, beautiful… Thank you for creating this magical place.
In response to The Powerful and The Powerless:
Last night, Ryan and I asked “Storm” as we call him, to please refrain from ripping the tar paper off our new shed roof. (He had a rip-roaring time whipping unattached-but-heavily-weighted-down sheets of metal roofing around the farm on a previous visit, wrapping some around steel fencing, throwing others in gullies…)
Solo building a house in this particular winter has been very interesting.
Take care,
Andrea
Gerry
February 27, 2009
Ah, the bucolic life of the farmer – early to bed, early to . . . wait, wait! Was that the shed roof that just flew by?
Andrea, thank you for the kind words, and for the great story. I think solo-building a house merits a post of its own. We should have a nice cup of tea and talk about it.
p.j. grath
February 27, 2009
We have identical candlesticks on our dining table here in Florida! Does that make you feel warmer?
Gerry
February 27, 2009
Um, not really, just more tasteful . . .
My laptop screen is acting up again, so I’m sitting in front of the old CRT, laptop on lap, with its little heat vents keeping my knees very, very warm. In spite of what the Weather Widget says, the sun just came out, so I guess I’d better take the dogs for their walk.