Today is February 5, 2010. Our weather men have been preparing us for a major winter storm, we could get six to nine inches of snow from this storm. They have the world in a panic, I cannot believe that people are so unprepared to live for a few days without having to jam themselves together at the nearest grocery to get bread and milk and whatever. Do people really only live a few days at a time without going to the grocery? Are we really going to be snowbound for days and days?
I remember very well the Blizzard of 1978. It was windy and cold and then the snow began to fall. I watched my wonderful husband leave the house, heading to the barn to feed the horses and hogs. I lost sight of him before he was ten yards from the house, there was a total white out, it was snowing and blowing that hard! A little tremble of fear went through me as he disappeared on our sidewalk. He returned after the feeding was done, he didn't get blown away or lost because he couldn't see ahead of his hand. It was all very exciting and even wonderful in some ways. The world as we knew it stopped in it's tracks. We considered it quite an adventure, even after we lost power and were without for more than a week. We had our little wood stove and piled on more clothes, it all worked somehow.
Our children were little, Ryan was almost six and Trisha was three and Emily didn't come until that fall. I know what you are thinking, ooh she was a blizzard baby! Ha! She came 10 months after that January blizzard. Living through this brought some knowledge of what it might have been like long ago when the pioneers traveled west or maybe what our Native people lived through. I might add that many are living in worse conditions NOW on reservations during blizzard conditions. They have no heat and the nearest store is not close. I am meandering here...... but it is an important subject to me. Of course, we had the easy version, we only had to live like that for a good week before the plows finally cleared our road and soon the power was restored. Actually, we were plowed out with road graders. (Hummm, do they still use road graders or is that a machine from the past?)
I was raised to keep the cupboards stocked, ready for any emergency or event. When I was a kid growing up in the country and we always canned our veggies from the summer gardens. While I don't do that today, I did learn to stock up ahead of the coming winter season, much like our animal friends who store their nuts away for winter. I only go to the grocery when I must, kicking and screaming all the way. We have freezers now, my choice for food preservation. I can live without bread for a couple days, if I must. Then there is a good chance I could make some bread if I had to. These skills aren't lost on me, I'd just rather do something else.
I have many things to do today in preparation for this Sunday. We are having Massie Creek Flute Circle in my studio on Sunday morning at 9:30 am. The studio is a mess, I have been busy creating wonderful pieces of art for the last month. When I work, everything is out, everything is at hand when I might need it. If I used something on the last gourd I leave it out, I might use something similar on the next gourd. I barely can find a space on the table to actually work because of all the "stuff" required to make a beautiful artistic looking gourd!
With the winter storm predictions I'm wondering if I need to clean the studio today.......... It is a possibility that no one will come if the weather is as bad as the weatherman is stating. But then again, if I don't clean, then we will have no bad weather, again the weathermen will have alarmed the world for nothing and flute circle will go on as planned. Chairs will need to be moved into the space, tables to lay flutes must be found and all of my goodies will have to be put neatly back in storage containers. This is why I don't do weekly classes in my studio, I would always be cleaning up for the next class and NEVER get any work done! So, as I finish this entry, the snow has started. It's not a blizzard yet and I'm thinking I've wasted enough time pondering the merits of cleaning or not cleaning my studio.
Hope you can join me on Sunday in my studio for Massie Creek Flute Circle!
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