Down From The Mountain

"Whisky! I love whisky! What? I'm a nun... not a saint!"
~Paradise Road

I thought I had snow when I last posted. Silly me... that was nothing. Picture if you will a woman who stands 5'6" (has a 31" inseam), trudging to the woodshed in snow up to her waist. (Heh... I almost typo'd waste... now that's damned funny right there!) Yeah, man. I got snow. I mean... I GOT SNOW!!!! I've been snowed in since last Tuesday. Today is my first day back at the switch, and I barely made it at that.

But, I've been loving it... getting great workouts shoveling and hauling wood, playing with my Snow Dawg, enjoying the peace and quiet, reading, reading, reading. I couldn't have planned a better vacation.

And, because of my hiatus in all the snow, I have a lovely, heartwarming, Christmasy story to tell. Yesterday when the power finally came back on (I've been with and without power on and off since last Sunday - no big deal), I pulled the cookie dough I'd mixed up out of the fridge and rolled it out - it's Grandma's secret cut-out cookie recipe. My plan was to bake them up and take a few dozen to work (which I have) and disperse a few to cookie bereft friends. As I was sprinkling colored sugar on one batch I heard the neighbor's snowblower and I looked out the kitchen window. I thought (I can't help but lean toward the dark side), "Gee Dude, why'nchya be a good neighbor and plow my drive too?!"

I went back to my baking, but the snowblower noise got louder. I looked out the window again and there was my neighbor... yup (she looks down ignominiously)... plowing my driveway! He saw me looking and raised a hand. I raised a hand in return. Looked at Nino (who had been drooling at my flour-dusted side the whole time) and with tears in my eyes, just said, "Geez, Nino... he just... geez...."

I had to wait until the batch was out of the oven, but I quickly packed up a couple dozen, pulled my boots on and was up the road faster'n you can say "Here we go a-wassailing.." He was still forging through the snow on his property, but I gave him a heartier wave and a flourish of the box of cookies. His wife was just coming back from feeding their chickens and I gave her an equally hearty wave and flourish.

As she came nearer she said, "Heya... what's up?"

"Oh, I just wanted to wish you guys a very Merry Christmas and give you these and thank your husband for plowing my drive."

"Awww... you didn't need to do that... "

"Blame my Mom for raising me right!" I said with a grin. "Really, it meant a lot to me."

"Well... hey... if you're not doing anything for Christmas, come on over. We're gonna have a crowd of folks here and just hang out and eat all day."

"Wow. Thank you. I don't have any plans, so I just might take you up on that."

"We're having prime rib...." she said with a persuasive raise of the eyebrow.

I flung my arm out behind me and said, "Ouch... ok, ok... "

She smiled and said, "Just come on over whenever you see cars start showing up in the drive."

And so... I have plans for Christmas... with folks I don't even know... but kind folks, spontaneous folks... woodsy folks... up on my mountain... in the snow... it just doesn't get better.