Life here: It's snowing

Saturday, November 29, 2014

It's snowing

Somewhere before 3 am, I look out the window and I see that snow has drifted into the corners of the neighboring roof. I go downstairs to look at the front window, I can see it falling in the light from the streetlamp, but it isn't sticking. I go upstairs and read (insomnia, as usual.) I look out again an hour later, and it's still pouring down, but not sticking anywhere. Finally fall back asleep.

Now it's morning, and it has stuck, enough to cover everything in white, still coming down. Everything muffled. Traffic in the distant, a quiet roar; nearer, the caw of a crow. Think I need to go out in it.

Walked around the lake, the western side was somehow out of the wind and so I felt like it was warming up. Then I got to the south end and either the wind picked up or it just wasn't hitting the other side, strong and really cold. There were white caps on the lake, and the waves where crashing up against the wall and splashing across the path. My face and hands were freezing, so I took a detour about a half-mile later on a path that goes up toward a main road, and away from the water. At one point I looked back and the water looked steely, and I thought I wanted a picture of it, so I stopped. My hands were cold, and it took a minute to get the lens cap off, and to hit the on button. While I was doing that, I hear a loud cracking sound, and look to see a tree fall across the path I'm on, about ten to fifteen feet further along from where I was standing. Suddenly, there are people everywhere. Someone runs over and looks under the branches to see if anyone got trapped (I don't think there was anyone else near when it fell, there was a shout, but that was me.) It took about five seconds to fall, but there was something strangely gentle about it. Perhaps I was seeing it in slow motion.

You know, I'm not freaked out in any way, but there's this small part of me that thinks, "I could've died today, and I didn't...why not?" (I don't want to die. It just makes me think about what I'm doing with my time.)

Later, at home, some random woman walked out of our bathroom. I said "hi" to her. There is an off chance she was my downstairs housemate, but I didn't really recognize her. And now my smoke alarm is chirping so I'm back out to the store to buy a new battery. It's been an odd day.

At least the wind has died down a bit. It's gorgeous outside, a silvery light (as a friend of mine used to call it), but freezing.

Here are some pictures of the walk. Fallen tree is the last one; the path to the right was the one I was following.