Cue the Christmas Carols

We got snow this weekend. Around noon on Saturday, the fluffy white stuff started fluttering down. By Monday morning, a good five inches had come down. Some of the snow trickled away yesterday afternoon as temps got above freezing (although only to about 35 F) but it's still looking like a winter wonderland out there.

It should be mentioned that the Corolla's brakes have been making a God-awful noise as of late. The kind of noise that makes you avoid braking whenever possible, the kind of noise that causes pedestrians to give you quizzical looks when you pull up to a stop sign. So I've been trying to keep the old girl off the road until we can her in to have her brakes replaced. I'm also a reluctant winter driver. I start to scheme about how to drastically reduce my driving when I see that first snowflake fall from the heavens. So when book club today was hosted by my closest neighbor (who is about my age and lives just over yonder with her husband and their baby), I wondered if I really had to drive over there. After all, our road hadn't been plowed . . .

"Just walk over the powerline," Andy said when I mentioned it. Of course! The idea of it dawned on me with  forehead smacking obviousness. The shortest distant between two places is a straight line and let me tell you, the road between my house and the neighbor's house is not straight at all. It is one twisty-turvy mess. So this morning, with a batch of hot white chocolate scones in a basket in my backpack, I set off down the powerline.

The walk was easy, except for one tricky part where I had to scramble up a cliff and the views were spectacular. I felt a little like a character from fairy tale. Or at the very least, like Pa Ingalls from Little House on the Prairie fame.

25 minutes later (I stopped to take pictures) I emerged behind the neighbor's cabin. I felt slightly exhilarated. I will not be isolated at the end of the earth this winter! I am a mere 20 minute trek away from people my own age. I thought about bursting into the cabin yelling, "Now I can come rile up your baby and hand him back when he gets tried, cranky, and stops making that cute cooing noise, all the time! Isn't this great news!?!"

Of course, I don't plan to play the "bad auntie" card too often. But it's good to know we're never quite as isolated as we might think. And of course, once the lake freezes over, it becomes even more straight forward to move around this quiet corner of the world.

Cue the Christmas carols. The snow has come, winter is upon us, and all is well. (Well, unless you're the Corolla.)