Probably for about three days, I speculate.
I'll be around, in and out some, but not full-time, and am fully appreciative of those who keep pumping the DUmpster with new material.
Today (Sunday) is the first day we've had reasonable temperatures in the Sandhills of Nebraska, circa 15 degrees, and after a little more than two weeks of massive snows and sub-zero temperatures, there's a big mess to deal with.
Not that one has let things pile up; one could do nothing but.
Beginning late on December 23, I was snowed in, snow blown clear up half-way, even two-thirds, of the sides of the house. The front porch fully stuffed with snow, to the ceiling (of the porch). The only way out was through the back door, after which one had to wade through groin-high snow to get to the front of the house.
It was as if spending Christmas in a cave.
By late December 26, I was able to get out; inbetweentimes, the county sheriff stopped by twice, practically on snow-shoes (actually, on some sort of small vehicle with runners), to be sure all was okay.....since I happened to be the only human being in the whole western half of the county at the time (usually there's about 30 or 40 of us).
But then on New Year's Eve, the snow started again, and as the previous snow had not yet evaporated or blown away, it was just more on top of more. This second storm however also brought with it sub-zero temperatures. As if the snow was not bad enough.....
There is currently 48" of snow on the ground here. Driving on roads is as if one is driving at the bottom of a long canyon, with sheer cliffs of snow 3-4 times the height of the automobile (admittedly, I do have a low-sitting vehicle) on both sides. Many roads are still one lane; four lane roads are just two, and in some cases, one.
We have snow in Nebraska, of course, but usually it's a case of an 8-10 hour blizzard, after which the sun and the wind erodes the snow away. A violent, but short-lived, natural phenomenon. Winters in Nebraska are known more for their mud, than for snow.
This is surely the worst snow to hit the state--and it hit the entire state--since that of January 1949, and it may exceed those old records, too. This house is usually seen from the highway, if one uses the William Rivers Pitt as a protruding landmark; but currently there is no sign of the William Rivers Pitt at all.
I dunno how high the snow is on some parts of this property, because one can't really find the ground, from which one forms an estimate. It shocks me not at all that the California Zephyr, going through southern Nebraska, encountered snow drifts more than two stories high (through which it could not go, obviously).
Anyway.
So I had to let things go. But now that there's a break in the weather, time to clean up what one can, beginning with a two-weeks' accumulation of garbage and used cat-litter stacked outside the door. I don't generate a lot of trash, and in fact the cat-litter's the majority of it, but it's not a little bit of a mess after two weeks.
There are waist-high, neck-high, "pathways" cut through here, but it's going to be a long and onerous chore, getting stuff to the faraway dumpster. There is a gasoline-operated snow-blower in the garage (the garage is snowed in, unusable), but myself being deaf, while I can operate such equipment, for reasons of safety I won't. I use a garden spade to move snow the old-fashioned way (snow-shovels and grain-scoops cause heart-attacks).
Among other things.
Of course, one has to remember one's good luck, too; the electricity never went out, the pipes never froze, the cats were all accounted for and safely inside, and the motor vehicle despite being parked out in the wide-open for days at a time without being started in sub-zero temperatures, has started at the first crank, every time.
The worst thing has been the utter isolation. And because of my peculiar situation where I cannot hear, there is no radio, no television, no music-player, for diversion. Just gloomy grey nothingness.
I however remain, as always, defiantly confident.
