Impromptu Visitors

As I sat working at my computer yesterday afternoon, I heard a loud knock on my front door. I raised the blinds to see who it might be in all this frozen blanket around my house. I did not recognize the lady, but thought it must be okay. I opened the door and saw a tall young man all bundled up. I opened the glass storm door and said, "Are you my neighbors". He said "yes", so I opened the door and said " come in out of the cold". Then it dawned on me who they were. It was the youngest couple on our road, a teacher and his wife an LPN. He has authored two books for children and teaches English in another county.

He had edited some of my writing so I thanked him for his help and we sat and talked almost an hour. It was an interesting interlude on such a cold day. They had taken pictures of deer tracks on my property as they walked up the hill and other pictures as well. He told me he would send them to me via email.

I think the reason I did not recognize them is that it was only the second time I had seen these neighbors. My house is on a hill and they live down the road on a side road. I had invited them to come along with their renter (who lives on a lower level) to shower one day when he had been without water for several days. That was the second time I had seen the young man. He came over once to help me with some incident with the dogs I was "baby sitting".

Even though we in this "neck of the woods" do not see each other often, we are still a neighborhood and feel connected by that fact. All of us have wells to supply our water, some of us heat with electric power, others with propane gas. Some have television by cable and I have only the local stations with high def. At least one of my neighbors has a generator in case of total electric outage. Only one family has children young enough to still be in school. Three of us are, or have been, teachers. At least three of the head of households are retired. At least two of us have businesses in town. I think I am the only one who is into gardening, though on a small scale. At least five of us have docks on the lake and only I have no boat. Also, I might add I am the only one to have bow hunters come in deer season to try their luck here on my five and a half acres.

So, we are enough alike to get along well and different enough to make life
interesting. We are a good demographic mix to have a congenial, safe, and forward looking community. Though our homes are separated and not all are visible we are patriotic, law abiding, voting, established citizens and committed to keeping our group alive and well. When folks move into our midst they tend to like it and to stay here. No homes for sale !

So, in the dead of winter when no one can get out on the icy roads and time gets heavy on your hands, a knock on your door is a nice surprise and a good way to renew acquaintances.

Saved by the Muffin

In times of stress we need to have an anchor to get us through the ordeal. I recall saying to my mother, when I was a very little girl; If I were stranded on an island and had only one thing to drink, I would want pineapple juice. My practical German mother replied " You had better choose water, you would get very tired of pineapple juice".

Today I am not stranded on an island, but I am stranded inside my house with frozen snow all around me. Getting through this confinement I have much to keep me occupied. Thankfully, I still have electric power, but that could change. Until and unless it does I have the computer, books to read, friends to talk to via the phone and email. Last, but not least, I have comfort food.

It is not pineapple juice this time, it is pumpkin muffins with chocolate chips in them. And along with it, hot Lemon Zinger tea!  I make it in a little white tea pot given to me when I was visiting in Ohio at my sister retirement home. I was intrigued with the little tea pots that the servers brought to our table. I had Lemon Lift tea at every meal while I was there. I wanted to buy a little tea pot but the managers there wanted to give me one. It has been a treasure to me since then.

In thinking about this imposed confinement, I can say that the anticipation before it arrived held me captive. The actual snow came in while I was sleeping. I peeked out around midnight and saw that indeed it had arrived. By morning it was all here in full force. It looked like 6 inches, judging from the snow piled up on the top of my golf cart. The first day, I was in a state of shock. I kept looking out and being thankful I did not have to actually GO out. All of the warnings from television and radio announcers was enough to keep me in. Also the thought of sliding all over the road made me thankful to stay inside.

On the second day the shock had worn off and then a state of adjustment began to take over. Since we (all other Georgians) were confined at the same time it was time to settle down and drink more tea, eat more muffins, and read more books.

As the dire reports began to come in ( it will be this way all week - if not worse), a sense of resignation took over. The expression "it is what it is" comes to mind.
So be it. It could be worse! Hopefully I will remain well and just keep on with the routine I have established. My ancestors endured much more and came through it all unscathed. Surely I can do the same in the comfort of a warm house !