An acquaintance of mine once got a job in a chocolate factory. She told me they tell you you can eat as much as you like. If you sit there in front of the conveyor belt checking that everything's the right shape or whatever it is you're supposed to do and you get the urge, go for it. Help yourself. By the end of your first week, so the reasoning goes, you'll never want to look at a square of the brown stuff again.
I'm beginning to feel that way about snow. At one time, if I opened the curtains to find that the world outside had turned white, and that all the things I'm used to seeing out there had been transformed into extraordinary shapes, I used to feel my spirit lighten. This was the stuff of snowmen and snowballs. Today would be different. The roads would be blocked and everything I had to do that day put on hold. I'd get on the phone, find that half the places I had to go were closed anyway and that the other half were inaccessible. After that, I could slow down and take my time. Spend all day in my slippers. I could go back to bed if I wanted to. Lounging around quickly gets tiresome if you've nothing else to do but, in my opinion, if you hardly ever get the chance to do it, a day when you've nothing else to do but lounge around is heaven.
Now, when I look out of the window and see that everything is still blanked out under a layer of the white stuff, that another couple of inches have fallen in the night and that the blue tits are still in a frenzy, pecking at the peanuts I leave out for them, desperately trying to eat enough to stay alive, I ask myself, when will it all end? I feel like an astronaut whose ship has crash-landed on the ice-planet lightyears from earth, waiting for the arrival of a rescue mission they know will never come. It will take years for the SOS call to reach mission control and even more years for the rescuers to make the journey. By the time they arrive, the stricken ship will be buried under metres of ice, like a mastodon in the arctic.
When the rescuers have beaten a path to your door they will find that you have eaten each other.
ReplyDeleteEat each other? What a revolting thought. It made me wonder how far you'd both get before you both pegged out.
DeleteThe polar vortex has settled into my part of the country (Kansas City) and the next week is going to get colder (bitterly!) before reasonable, seasonable temperatures return. I grit my teeth and dress warmly, but I've never been fond of cold and snow the way I (still) am of chocolate.
ReplyDeleteI think chocolate can be a good antidote to cold weather.
DeleteSupposed to warm up over the week end.
ReplyDeleteI have not had any chocolate for years - don't miss it but would miss the odd cup of cocoa now and again.
I haven't had any cocoa for years!
DeleteOne of the things I like about snow is how it blocks the roads. Right now I would feel better about lounging around with nothing to do if the roads were blocked.
ReplyDeleteWhen I used to drive for work a lot I used to will it to fall as deep as possible! There was nothing worse that a couple inches making the roads round here just passable but dangerous.
DeleteHello C,
ReplyDeleteWe hardly dare to say that we have been wishing for snow.....for weeks...and none has arrived. Every day gets colder. Today it is -12C and dropping but, there is no sign of the white stuff.
In years gone by, Budapest had mountains of snow, just like washing powder, deliciously fine and crunchy underfoot. But, in recent years, there has been little or nothing at all. Just rain and wall to wall grey, leaden skies.
However, when there was snow, there were no roads blocked. No trains or buses stopped, schools and shops remained open. Legions of workers would appear with shovels or snow ploughs and everything carried on as normal. They are equipped to deal with snow here....it is just that there is none to deal with at the moment. Can you spare some?
Are there a couple of vacancies at the chocolate factory?
Anyone who comes round with a shovel and a wheelbarrow is welcome to take some away!
DeleteMy acquaintance worked at 'Rowntree Mac's' in West Yorkshire, years ago. It's been pulled down now.
I love your description of how the love for snow slowly fades and becomes the feeling of a mastodon trapped in the Arctic. I wish I had something as poetic for weeks of gray skies and rain and rain and rain. We are trapped by winter and a pandemic and our signals for help go unanswered...unanswered...unanswered.
ReplyDeleteGrey skies and rain are really miserable. When it's like that I find myself wishing it would snow!
DeleteIt's rather sad isn't it? When we're children there's nothing but endless fun to be had from a good supply of snow - or sand - or water - or even mud. But gradually these pleasures slip away from us.
ReplyDeleteThe music's a real find, but there's something about the way that the drummer is skittering all over the cymbals with brushes that makes me think Robert Wyatt is about to sing at any moment. I shall visit their Bandcamp page this evening.
It is, isn't it? I thought anyone who 'covered' Eno's Music for Airports must be at least with a listen! Haven't listened to Wyatt for a while. Been listening to Henry Cow, though.
DeleteI have a vague recollection of seeing Henry Cow playing a free gig on Grantchester Meadows near Cambridge in about 1971 or 72. Unfortunately nobody else seems to remember it!
DeleteI had the opposite experience. I told an old friend that I wish, yeats ago, I'd been to a Throbbing Gristle gig. He told me that I had, with him! I forgotten completely. I think I'd not been interested in them at the time and must've just gone along to keep him company.
DeleteWe have soooooo much snow here, probably about 3 feet. Our house faces north so the accumulation never goes away until May. Yesterdays temp was -30C with the wind chill it was -41C!!! Now that is cold! Today it is only -20C but it is snowing again.
ReplyDeleteThat puts our light dusting into perspective!
DeleteThink you are over-dramatising this brief period of snow. Enjoy it!
ReplyDeleteI am doing, thank you. Kind of. Just been for a walk up the field - it's been weeks since I've been further than the dustbin. There have been reasons for this- covid has come very close to us recently. Fortunately, all those I know who caught it have emerged unscathed.
DeleteI understand your post well! At first snow is beautiful and exciting, a change from the browns of winter. But after a few weeks it does get a bit old, especially with the very cold temps. Like one commenter above, I live in the Kansas City area and we have been in a terrible cold front for the past week with single digit temps and lower. Now they tell us it is about to get even colder. Enough is enough! But we all deal with what we must and I know bloggers that have it much worse than what I have here so it is somewhat relative.
ReplyDeleteStill, I do relate to your feelings very much! I hope your ship comes in soon!
It occurred to me, after I'd written this, to wonder what it was I was complaining about, since many of those reading this around the world would get a lot more snow that we do! However, I think it's more about having to 'shield' ourselves here and go out as little as possible. All we can see of the world is what we can see out of the window at the moment and everything out there has been covered in white dust sheets. :)
DeletePart of me quite envies those who get, like, -15 and 15ft of snow. The older I get, though, the smaller that part of me gets!
I'm ready to see any color by grey and white...argh.
ReplyDeleteI'm reminded of when, as a child, I first saw colour TV. My uncle had bought one and we all went round to see it. It was in this huge wooden cabinet. There was a football match on and the players coloured shirts appeared to be running round after them!
DeleteWe've missed the snow this time. It's still bitterly cold however and there are icicles at the river. X
ReplyDeleteI can never resist photographing big icicles.
DeleteI love snow when it first falls and when it lies deep and crisp and even in the woods. I hate snow when it melts and then freezes over. I was getting bored of the snow here but then it all melted.
ReplyDelete