endurance

If I have learned anything from experience, it is that sometimes life consists chiefly of just getting through the days and nights. It-is-what-it-is (they say), there is nothing in our power to change things, and so you just have to suck it up and keep carrying on. Endurance is the key.

For five days now and the second time this winter, we are experiencing a cold snap. But unlike the first event, this one features ice on the desert plants and a dusting of snow on the ground. Two nights ago, the ice on the plants glittered like a Hallmark card.

Yet the weather has been very windy, uncomfortable and, after a one-day respite (today), is predicted to last for several more days.

This way of life is not for sissies. It makes doing everything harder and more expensive. For example, I have had to put a second propane space heater to work, doubling my daily heating cost from $10 to $20. But the desk no longer feels like a slab of ice.

I went to town yesterday to get a shower and some propane, gasoline, cream for coffee, and tobacco, but the power grid was down and the Motor Lodge was unable to provide either showers or gasoline. (The grid is said to be down throughout the entire region.) So without an adequate supply of gas and smelling rather ripe, the next few days will be harder than anticipated.

Just how hard remains to be seen. At least I won’t starve or freeze to death. My neighbors have already seen to that. Yesterday Bill delivered some chicken soup and a five gallon tank of gasoline. But if I experience evenings without electricity, there will be long periods of potential boredom… unless I can engage myself in things like certain mind games.

Yet if this is my greatest challenge, I know I’ll get through it.

۞

Groove of the Day

Listen to Donald Fagan performing “Snowbound”

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PS: At about 7:00 pm on January 3^rd, a Saturday, the phone and Internet inexplicably stopped working. As a result, I have been cut off from everything. I wasn’t able to post anything to the blog until about 3:00 pm Sunday, nor have I been able to research anything new or talk to anybody.

I just received a call from the phone company, and they tell me they have just been able to restore a tenuous Internet connection. But the dial tone on the land-line is still dead.

They say the power grid is down, and they have been running on battery power until the batteries ran out last night. They’re now relying on gasoline generators, they’re still short of the equipment and people they need to restore full access, and the system is likely to crash again. The power grid will not be restored, they say, until the middle of next week at the earliest.

As of this writing, the phone and Internet have been down for more than 20 hours.

I try to find something in this isolation to appreciate. It is practice for the apocalypse. It is a test of my creative mettle. An enforced vacation. A chance to become “one with nature.” That kind of drivel.

The truth is, I don’t like anything about it. I like being connected with the world. The only good I can see in this situation is that it’s drawing to an end.