Winter Wonderland

Usually I am a rather conservative person when it comes to weather. Though I think that snow is pretty awesome, I don't remember being fearless driving in it since I was in graduate school and living in Boston. I had Ravishing Ruby The Truckstop Child at the time, a beautiful red Subaru, who could traverse nasty Boston Slush, Blizzards on Interstates or in town, and take crazy night trips with friends when you literally couldn't see anything in front of you. Ruby was a good girl, and I miss her. When our first Christmas at our cabin in Boone in 1998 was marked with a wild snow/ice/snow/ice storm and we spun around backwards with the Suburban filled with dad, Katrina, Allison, Julia, two golden retrievers and a cat, I knew that I didn't want to drive in this weather again if possible.

So here I am, nearly 61, and my youthful husband greets me this morning with a hearty, "Well, last night's storm was crappy, let's see if we can get to Boone." I was not enthusiastic for an hour or so, but then joined in the delight. Sadly, we don't have a Suburban anymore, nor do I think I can ride in the Subaru for 4 hours, but, we hopped in the Toyota (without kitty) and made the trek. All was well until we hit Wilkesboro where plowing seemed to have bogged down. Still, the roads were pretty clear until we started up the road that leads to our house. And when we came through Mr. Brooks house, I was definitely worried. This was a good worry as we only drove past the first side road and were stuck. Fortunately for us, Brooks' son was plowing, and after he drove past us, we were able to manage to slide our way up as far as the switchback.


So here we are with a beautiful afternoon, evening, and walk around the neighborhood. WNCW is playing beautiful bluegrass Christmas music, and there is the possibility of 4 more inches of snow tonight. If we get snowed in???? Oh well as far as I am concerned. Kitty has plenty of food, water, and warm blankets all around her, so we will be just fine in the "hills of Caroline".