Feb. 09, 2003 - 18:58 MST

THE WONDERING JEW

Reality Re-visited

A sunny, cold day here today. Not horrible cold but a stiff breeze gave us quite a feeling of wind chill. As we sat in McDondald's with our daughter having her customary hamburger, fries and Coca-Cola that she has when we visit with her on Sunday, I was looking from my usual vantage point there where I can see the clouds and incoming people when we are there. I saw what appeared to be lots of smoke clouding the scene. It lasted longer than I would think. It was the wind blowing the light snow from the slanted roofs of nearby businesses.

More or less in a fugue my fey mind tapped me on the shoulder and started right in, "Hey man, remember . . . . . . . ?" Do I remember, oh yes the time I was up country to deliver furniture in the old ton and a half truck on a cold, windy winter day with snow on the roads. When I had a flat tire and finally found a reasonably flat place to park and struggling to break loose the iced up spare tire rack from under the bed of the truck while the accursed wind straight from Boreas' deepest hell tore at my clothes all the time I labored over that damnable flat tire. Yes, I know that hell is traditionally hot, but there is a deep freeze there too. Do I remember ? Oh yes, Mr. Bastion I do so.

Do I remember ice skating on Evergreen Lake in the nearby mountains ? A time when the air was so clear that if one had good enough eyesight the needles on the pines could be counted from quite a distance. The air cold and sharp as the best of wines. My heart beating with happiness and joy ? Oh yes, I remember that too.

And later in life when we went skiing at Arapahoe Basin on Loveland Pass, glorying in the snow and excitment of skiing while taking deep breaths of that same winy mountain air. Oh yeah, I remember that too, fondly.

Do you remember coming from the west on I-70 with our truck carrying a big test sled loaded with pyrotechnics and having to go over that same Loveland Pass through a blinding ground blizzard ? Uh huh, am still shaking a bit over that 'cause it was a long way down.

Do you remember that one night after midnight when you came home from work ? Very well in fact. Heather and I had been married a short time then. I fell under the spell of snow while riding the street car home. The world was muffled in fresh fallen snow, sound deadend, soft snow flakes falling. Waking Heather up and urging her to dress up for the cold, we took a walk into the park several blocks away, blazing a trail in the new fallen icing on the earth-cake as snow softly fell and caught in her hair.

Do you remember the blizzard in Denver, the year of the first haylift ? Damn right I do. It started snowing right after we ate lunch on Friday at work. We had to shift snow around to get out of the parking lot. After getting a ride home the rest of my evening in between supper and an occasional coffee and snack was spent shoveling snow where we lived. Did the same all day Saturday and part of Sunday. By Monday the only things moving on the streets were the four wheel drive Military Vehicles and people slogging through snowy sidewalks. Then on Monday, walking to work for several miles and shoveling snow off the roofs at work and he huge piles of rough hickory billets and then walking home after that. That was a new lesson in coping with fatigue and muscular soreness for me.

Do you remember watching your kids meet the first snow here in Denver after you came back from Florida ? What a blast the kids had, they reminded me of a young puppies, running crazy with their noses down rooting in the snow. They did get wet and cold but man oh man did they ever have lots of fun. Our oldest boy became a skiier for sport and he enjoyed that, to my envy. I wished I could have gone up with him. Yes I remember.

It was nice and memories have been refreshed, now get off my cotton pickin' back and let me go about present daily things. I did though enjoy my trip back to Reality Re-visited . . . . . . . . . .

Blog