Wednesday, February 12, 2014

Woes of Wind and Wet

Wind-Stretched Clouds Over Elmira
Imploding Snow
Melt on the Pond
Cornice of Roof Snow
Water Like Pearls
Flashing blue lights taunt me. I'm resetting the HughesNet Satellite Internet with no such luck of service. Already I've trudged to the satellite dish twice, but see nothing amiss. Cables are all connected. Wireless system is a-okay. Computers rebooted. Third reset and the lights blink. I'm woefully disconnected.

It must be the wind and the tremendous melt it rushed across the northern Rockies. Water pours off the roof from beneath mounds of squishy snow. Elongated clouds stretched to almost breaking by western winds cast a kaleidoscope of light and shadow across puckered snow. It's melting so fast the snow is imploding where tracks create hollows.

Giving up on the electronics, I march across the southern pasture to Elmira Pond. Already I can see water pooling along the far edge. The ice is flexing, no longer solid.

My trouble is with the snow. It's still deep, but like walking in soft ice cream. My heavy boots clunk and my legs protest against the gait. Halfway back to the house a cramp seizes my hamstring from the back of my knee up to my left periformis muscle.

Stretching relieves the cramp until I try to step with my left leg again. After three spasms, I'm dragging my left leg walking sideways to the house. The wind blasts at my back and spray from melting snow splatters the lenses of my glasses. I think this is what it means to be on one's "last leg."

Side-stepping is easier across the driveway and I'm so relieved to make it up the wet steps beneath the mounding cornice of roof snow. Water drops like strings of crystal pearls and it sounds like summer rain.

Once inside I check the blue lights. Still flashing. So I watch the wind contort clouds and I gently stretch my leg.

Woes will pass.

10 comments:

  1. You're right... woes will pass. Georgia is having weather woes currently -- ice & snow they are ill-prepared for, being a southern state. :-) May Spring soon come to all of us and melt all snow away for another season.

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    1. Crazy when Georgia is colder than northern Idaho! I hope springs melts away all your winter woes.

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  2. Its snowing here, suppose to get 6" by the time this is done. I'll be shoveling fluffy white stuff later today. .

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    1. It's now soggy and the snow is patchy...hope yours melts as fast.

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  3. Hope your "last leg" situation is very temporary. Anytime my Internet is down I feel like I've had an amputation. Enjoy those water pearls. They are priceless.

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    1. My legs don't always like to go the way they were intended; kind of like old legs on a Barbie doll! It was ridiculous getting stuck in the snow, though. Better today and the pearls are all gone. Glad I got to enjoy them.

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  4. I just want to know how it is that you can make those "woes" sound so romantic when you write. lol You are a true wordsmith!

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    1. The fun of being a writer is that it's never as dull as it really is. Romance is a good infusion into any situation! Thanks!

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  5. I do love the way you write. It is very poetic and just carries you along. I enjoy reading you. You weather sounds very much like ours. It will end. My fear is it will go somewhere worse. I dread 110 degree weather more than this winter.

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    1. Thank you for saying that! As to 110, though...oh, goodness, I'd be hanging out in the pond with Blue Heron!

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