Snowdrifts

Keeping warm

The wind howled and stormed so hard last night that I lay awake till 3:30, anxious. Even Ducky awoke, came barking out of his traveling crate in the closet near the foot of our bed, and pawed at the side of the mattress to get my attention. I sat up, gave him a cuddle, took a walk around the house (inside of course) and looked out all the windows to make sure half the yard hadn’t blown away. Fortunately the yard light makes everything visible at night, and it didn’t look half as bad out there as it sounded indoors. Once back in bed, I realized there was no use trying to sleep, because I was hungry. It never fails that if I’m awake at 3 a.m. I find myself hungry. So I got up and ate some granola while looking for something to watch on TV at that time of night. So much for having a hundred channels; nothing much could be found. I caught the last few minutes of a Ron James comedy show before going back to bed. It was 4 before I finally fell asleep.
And yes, there are snowdrifts around the yard. Some of them four feet high. Or deep.

Wed 24 Nov 1997
6:52a.m., from an old handwritten journal, when Everett was five years old:
Still in bed. Have to get up and help Emil dress in eight minutes. Everett’s beside me, pissed off because he can’t get married yet and have a wedding. And he asked me how babies are made (and I gave him an introductory explanation) because he is definite about wanting to be a poppa when he grows up… He got his 8”x10” school picture yesterday and was excited enough to show it around the class (the aide told me) and then all around the café where I took the boys for lunch. “I’m handsome, right?”