Snow Days

It snowed last night. Not a lot about enough to turn the world white and give that lovely sense of quiet to the world. Since I began working at home and don’t have to get out and commute I have come to love snow days. I dug out a couple of my Solstice CDs and put a pot of Trader Joe’s Wintery Blend coffee on. The house is warm and fragrant and I have to get to work but need to take a few minutes to write.

Yesterday Mark and I spent a couple hours down at the fish pier watching two draggers being unloaded and making sure the world keeps turning properly. You have no idea how many of the world’s problems get solved during our fish pier sojourns. 'See that boat,' Mark said, ‘I helped the guy who owns it bring it back from Nova Scotia after he bought it.’ Gloucester fishermen seem to put a high value on Novi boats. Mark’s boat, F/V Black Sheep, on which most of the action in his book takes place, is a Novi boat that he brought back from Nova Scotia alone.

‘O’Reilly’s off his rocker again,’ Mark told me. He is a conservative and listens to talk radio during the day, a thing that he introduced me to. I was fascinated for awhile but eventually lost interest. Mark keeps me informed of the pressing issues of the day. Bill O’Reilly is one of our favorite talk-jocks to discuss. I used to listen to him regularly but got tired of his melodrama.

‘All the stuff going on in the world and O’Reilly’s freaking out about Christmas trees.’ Mark said. Yes, I’ve heard him.

It occurs to me that we’ve lost all sense of proportion in this world. Everything is cataclysmic and extreme. That same morning I had been in the grocery store which was packed with people buying provisions for the coming snow storm that was bearing down on us. We got maybe 2 inches. Granted this has been a year of extreme weather but this coming-storm obsession with clearing out the Poland Springs aisle has been going on for years.

I like the simplicity of my life these days. The little pleasures of making a kettle of soup on a snowy day, going to the library and coming home with my book bag full of treasures, attending local entertainments where I know half the audience, spending a few hours with a friend I love sipping coffee and discussing life and all its vicissitudes is wonderful.

Yesterday I had a spat, carried on through emails, with someone I barely know. In the midst of it Leslie called. She has been my friend for years. We are the same age and both single businesswomen who are very involved in the community. We have spent countless hours discussing our lives and our ideas. I told her about the spat and read her one of the emails.

‘My God,’ she said, ‘I can’t believe anyone would even think that way. He sounds nearly hysterical.’ Like O’Reilly, I couldn’t help but think. ‘How well does this guy know you?’ she asked. We’ve met maybe three times, I told her. ‘You and I have been friends for years,’ she said, ‘and I can’t imagine anyone thinking about you that way. It’s painful to even hear.’ Yes... well...

It is a snow day. A quiet, beautiful day filled with snow is a good time for snuggling in, getting quiet, calming down and appreciating our world. Bill O’Reilly will rant about something today but I won’t listen. Others given to histrionics and massive drama will exercise their craft. I’ll make soup and do my work.

The world will keep on turning.

Thanks for reading.