Opinion

Let it snow?

Thursday, December 7, 2006

Are you tired of hearing everyone's horror stories about what happened to them during this big snow? I am still enjoying them for two reasons. First, I know that when they finish I can tell my story and it will beat theirs.

Second, we needed the moisture so badly and the snow does such good things for the winter wheat and the soil that our inconvenience doesn't really matter. I could add a third or fourth -- too. It is so pretty and I can't see the accumulation of leaves that should have been taken care of last month.

And the snow brings back cherished memories of sled rides, games of fox and geese and less cherished memories of snowball fights.

I was over in Washington County, Mo., (near Potosi) at the YMCA of the Ozarks leading a class at an Elderhostel last week. One evening the guests (all have to be 55 or older) were out on the big lake on a pontoon boat near sunset and watched the moon come up over the hills. They were wearing light jackets but were comfortable. Within 36 hours these same people were looking out their windows at the lake shore with trees encrusted with ice, cedars decorated for Christmas with their white frosting, and snow drifts around the shore.

It was a beautiful picture, but it had one big flaw. The beautiful ice had also encrusted each of our cars with four inches of ice and the heavily laden trees had broken off under the beauty and snapped the power lines somewhere (probably many places) so the big resort was without electricity.

Being without electricity means also being without heat. Eventually the water would not flow and the telephone lines were also down. Cell phones which rarely worked in that low valley anyway would not work at all because the booster station's signal was ice covered and wasn't helping out a bit.

Our hosts could not let us stay another night until the roads became safer because of the electricity problem, so we had to haul our luggage and class supplies up two long flights of stairs to the front doors since the elevators obviously didn't work.

Thankfully the terrific staff at the lodge helped carry things for us and also worked for hours freeing our vehicles from the ice that wouldn't even let us get inside to let the car heater help with the work.

My sister was with me and as we finally drove out of this fairyland of ice the roads at the Y were clear and the rural highways were also free of snow and ice. We were rejoicing in our good fortune until we reached I-44.

From that point until we got almost to Ellen's home at Lebanon we crept along on a frozen, rutted road of ice with hundreds of semi-trucks crawling along with us. It took us one hour to go from the first exit at Rolla to the fourth exit, with some of that time being completely motionless.

I usually just drop my sister off at her home and come on home after we return from the Elderhostels, but this time I had had enough fun on the ice.

I spent the night in her warm home, rejoicing that her electricity was still doing its job.

The next day I found the state roads almost completely cleared of ice or snow and even when I turned onto our rural roads I discovered that a good neighbor had plowed out the crushed rock roads and our son had cleared our long driveway. I breezed in with no problems.

I was very glad to be home.