Saturday Slight

 

Welcome, winter!

You can come for a visit, but please don't stay long.

It's gorgeous outside today and cold.  

A day's worth of snow has turned the landscape white.

The wood stove got fired up for the first time last night, but I think it's gonna get some more use over the next couple of days with temps that could go into the single digits. 

I hope this is just a teaser, and that later in the week a warm-up will melt the snow, and we can get back to the business of getting ready for winter. 

Thankfully, we had enough weather warnings that the day's worth of winter came as no surprise, but that didn't mean we liked it.

Yesterday brought the snow and some great news for us as a family.  

Finally, after seven months of waiting I received official word and information from Aer Lingus that our vouchers for the family's four cancelled round-trip flights from Seattle to Dublin had been officially issued. 

At the same time, Annie, who would be flying on a slightly different schedule from the rest of us, received her vouchers. 

And, so it was a good day with a little sample of hope and a door opened slightly for some dreaming. 

Heck, I even felt somewhat giddy while racing around raking up snowy leaves to go throw on my rosebushes. 

Later, however,  when I walked over and discovered that the Subaru had a flat tire and texted Bill, he wrote back:  the good news has ended. 

He told me he had never changed a tire on a Subaru, so after reading the manual, he went out and did the job. 

He then told me he would be calling Les Schwab Tires to see if they could fix the flat. 

I told him about Helen's story about her husband Skip who had gone to Les Schwab's early in the morning only to find out they opened later than he had thought. He would be waiting a while with a whole bunch of other people wanting their snow tires.

When Bill called, the person at the other end said it would be a 9-hour wait for tires to be changed but that one person had been designated for fixing flats. It could be right away or up to a little more than an hour.

So, Bill took the tire and came back a couple of hours later with the report that it had gone flat because of a screw----but it's fixed. 

Other than those projects, we just kinda let the snow fall with hope in our minds that it will get better in a few days. 

I may have said this before:  the Pandemic is adding to our essential resilience for living in North Idaho. 

Not much we can do about the forces that work against us sometimes, especially Mother Nature. 

And, so today, we'll probably just admire/tolerate the pretty snow, take care of our four-legged beloveds and putz around with a few projects that don't involve leaves or grass. 

We'll also continue to be more careful than ever with our wanderings----nearly 80,000 new cases of Covid reported yesterday---a record since the beginning of the Pandemic. 

More important than ever to hunker down and try to stay healthy. 

Happy Saturday. 

To June Paulet and her loving family. 

I'm very sorry to have missed your celebration of June's life today, but please know that you and she are in my thoughts. 

To Franny, Ginny and all of June's beloveds, this Irish girl from down North Boyer Road sends you this beautiful song along with much love. 

May we all see each other and enjoy our lifetime friendship in safer times.