The rain had stopped. I had just urged my five plastic skeleton heads with their wiggly eyeballs to stand at attention in the front lawn near the house. As I worked with the insubordinate Halloween soldiers, the breeze was earning its way toward a promotion into full-blown wind. Apparently, it impressed the gods upstairs because ten minutes later, I looked out the sliding-glass door to a wild blizzard.
Almost instantaneously, the leafy green carpet had turned white. The weather forecasters had said for two days we were going to have snow. Once more, I'd figured they got it wrong. We had rain most of the day, but the afternoon had turned dry. As I saw it, the brief rain storm after dinner would be followed by a cold crisp day, and the snow would remain in the mountains to the east and the west.
The weather forecasters got it right. For a couple of hours last evening, I returned to the sliding glass door and flipped on the outside light in amazement. With each trip, I also felt really relieved that yesterday marked the beginning of barn stay for Rambo and Casey. As the snow whirled furiously at the whim of a determined wind, both of my boys stood snugly in the barn with plenty of hay and with heated water within each of their stalls.
I was glad. All cats had reported to the house. Dogs lay on the hide-a-bed in the garage. Everyone could take a long winter's nap, secure that we were all warm and protected from this first blast of winter. While watching the 6 o'clock news, I wondered out loud to Bill if this would be a winter like the one we endured ten years ago when it started snowing on Halloween and couldn't figure out how to stop until nearly April.
Roofs caved in that year all over North Idaho, including the auditorium roof at Sandpoint High. That disaster extended our Christmas vacation. That was also the year that I had gone to the emergency room one fall day after Rambo and Casey had gotten out and gone to visit the Feists. While leading them back across the field, I had my hands full as Casey was more than anxious to get somewhere fast.
My friend Jean---are you reading this, Jean?----stopped along the road to visit when she saw me out in the field rounding up the two yahoots. She probably still doesn't know what happened later. Casey got his feet caught in a downed board gate. While trying to free him, I went down on my knee unlike I'd ever gone down before. I heard and felt something snap. With horses running all over the place, I tried to get to the house. Eventually, I was crawling cuz that knee hurt so bad.
I called my dad who couldn't figure out who it was at the other end. Apparently, my usual deep, mellow voice wasn't sounding so mellow at the time. He finally figured it out, called 911 and headed for town with my mother. All emergency vehicles that could make all the noise in the world soon descended on our place. Somebody eventually got the horses back into their corral, and I eventually came home from the emergency room with a knee brace and crutches.
What does this have to do with the winter of 1996? We had all that snow, and I could not cross country ski once during all those months cuz of that darned sore knee which required about nine months to finally heal.
This morning, I once again led Casey and Rambo to another pasture. They had not escaped this time, and their behavior was much more satisfactory than that September day ten years ago. They walked side by side like gentlemen toward the Ponderosa Pasture, and as they did, I could hear crunch, crunch, crunch from the blanket of frozen snow that now covers the ground.
The day promises a blue sky, a crisp, calm air and a whole new scene to behold here at the Selle Lovestead. Also, the daily routine for another winter has begun. Each afternoon before dark all will snuggle into their warm winter's nest, and each evening, I'll be glad that we have such wonderful facilities for our animals as they happily adjust to the winter routines in their new home.
Each morning, we'll all emerge from our nests to see just what the winter offers here on South Center Valley Road.
Now, if I could just get those skeleton heads to remain at attention when I plug in their lights for the ghosts, goblins and guests who come by to visit on Halloween.
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