It could be worse

Winter always has many less than subtle ways of humbling us. I think winter, hurricanes, tsunamis, earthquakes and other natural events serve as good reminders of just who's running the show. And, it's not us.

With winter in full force here at the Lovestead, we've already met with a few humblers. I listened to one of those yesterday every time I was in the house. Now, I know that ten inches of snow on a steep-pitched metal roof makes ten times more noise than a skiff of snow does.

All day long, the earthquake magnitude rumbling and roaring persisted. By late afternoon, our roofless deck that I had cleared the day before was covered from end to end with a seemingly inpenetrable snow berm about five feet wide and at least four feet deep. Most of it came tumbling off the roof. So far, fortunately, no animals or humans have been at the wrong place at the wrong time.

I did hear a couple of horror stories about roof slides from the Meserves when I went for a walk last night and saw them standing in their driveway. During our visit, they told me about how one of their cats was temporarily entombed near the house when snow slid off their roof. Fortunately, it happened to be situated in a gap big enough to allow breathing and frantic meowing. An alert family member came with the shovel and rescued the scared little feline.

They also told me a story of years ago when three neighborhood girls were near their barn when heaps of snow decided to descend. Two did not get out of the way in time. The third ran for help and was so distraught she could hardly bring herself to talk and tell where her sisters were buried. Fortunately, she calmed down long enough to point, and shovels started furiously digging. The story had a happy ending because the girls beneath the snow were not physically injured. Who's to say how it affected them emotionally.

Now that the temperatures are dropping with the Arctic burst that's rolling in, I've come upon another wintertime humbler. Water builds up from the snow that melts along the side of our barn. Then, when the temperature drops, the water freezes. This morning I discovered that I'll be spending a lot of time this winter digging out ice jams which prevent the side doors to our box stalls from opening. Fortunately, my seasoned geldings are showing patience while I work to get those doors open and release them to their breakfast in the field outside.

I'm sure as the winter wears on, we'll discover lots more humblers and we'll complain a time or two, but our problems are relative----and not so bad it seems. When I came back from digging away ice jams, a note from my daughter appeared in my inbox. We were missing the keys to the ATV and figured they went to Seattle when she left Saturday, so I wrote and asked if she had them.

Her response follows:

Did you check for the keys on the window sill above the kitchen sink? I don't have the keys with me here...I always put them on that window sill.

I'm not feeling so well right now. I can barely think straight. Kristi was coming in for her layover last night. She was supposed to arrive at 9 p.m. She didn't come in until 11:30 p.m...this was after it had taken me an hour just to get to the airport because the roads were really bad by the airport.

When I was driving there, the traffic headed back toward Seattle was really bad...but I figured it would have been gone by the time Kristi finally came in. It wasn't. The road was complete ice and when the cars moved, they only moved about a mile an hour. Several cars were off in ditches...several cars were abandoned yesterday all over the interstates.

The two miles it takes from the airport to I-5 took us 4 hours. It would have taken even longer, but I decided to head south on I-5 instead of north to try to save some time. Luckily I took the right exit to turn around and head the right direction on I-5, because as I was crossing the bridge I saw complete gridlock on the freeway at 4 a.m...no one was moving...most semis pulled over on the side of the road. I saw people sleeping in their cars on the side of the road.

And then I remembered that in about an hour I had to get Kristi back to the airport....so I called taxis and finally I found a towncar company actually willing to take her from downtown. I knew if I had gone back to the airport to drop her off that I would still be stuck in that mess now and wouldn't make it to work in time.

Anyway, I've had no sleep and I have to go to work now. I know I can't call off because someone else already called off today. Hopefully I can come home early, but I doubt I can even do that. Well, time for work.

Annie had left the coat she was wearing while driving the ATV, so we found the keys. And, after reading her note this morning, I know for sure that the headaches associated with winter that we encounter here on the farm could be worse. When I think of a miserable night spent on I-5, I know it could be a LOT worse.

We could be sleepless in Seattle.