We just had a week of "normal" winter.
Every thing pretty much stayed north of 0.
Highs got up in the 20s.
Lows dipped oh-so-delicately then jumped right back up to the 'teens before you could get to work or school.
Sunshine.
Blue skies.
A slight breeze sometimes.
No howling wind.
Winter was fun again.
And now, Freez-illa is back.
Three days ago we had the chance for 12-16 inches of snow.
And we already have a crisp, clean 2-2 1/2 feet on the roof.
I've been up in the attic of the Little-House-On-The-Corner.
I've seen the rafters and roof joists.
They were homemade in the '40s.
Yeah. Time to panic.
So TechnoBoy used the snowrake and took most of it down to about 4-5".
The roof looks like a medicinally sheared retriever fighting the mange. But it's safer.
All that roof snow is now heaped in front of the Dining/Living/Family/Computer Room windows located across from the Chair.
And the storm did bring another 8-9" hence the view from the Chair is now a window-framed picture of snow.
And here I sit this morning.
-10 below.
Nothing but snow and the tops of trees in the sky are visible from my perch.
And the Elixir of Knowledge is not done brewing.
Bummer. Mucho bummer-air-o.
Life for an instant becomes a hopeless fight against the cold. An exercise in survival living.
A mundane monochrome experience.
No dreams.
No thrill.
No Technicolor.
Just a trapped feeling.
Like living out the movie "Groundhog Day".
In a freezer.
The Elixir has stopped gurgling, so I fight my way out of the Chair and stumble to the kitchen.
And as I stand up I see it over the pile of snow.
The street is there, plowed and glistening in the street light.
The neighbors' roof stacks all stream a thin, tall cloud of wispy fumes into freezing air.
The sun is coloring the sky a purple-magenta just over Grandma Alice's house.
The Morning Star, just below the treetops, is blazing away like an Audi headlight.
Wow.
All that from a different view.
A road to travel.
Friends to meet.
A brand new day.
And a beautiful promise of eternity.
Three feet of perspective and the world changes dramatically.
And then I think of His perspective.
Of the things He promises.
And how my perspective can be joined with His.
To see life through His eyes.
All Technicolor and chock full of wild, impossible, fully-achievable dreams.
Wow.
The full cup of Elixir and I make it back to the Chair.
My thoughts travel upward with the steam from the cup.
Huh.
His perspective is definitely, most emphatically, better than mine.
Yeah.
And it's a whooooole lot better than the Chair's.