socked in here; they call it "back to back storms" but mostly i call it just a lot of snow, with very cold wind, blowing all over the place. i am enormously grateful that we still have power. i don't even walk the puppy as the snow is probably higher than he is.

in this weather the family stays home; we haven't gone to town in a few days. i like that. i want nothing to do with the roads. we are still traumatized from last winter and now i have to admit, i just want it to be over. i don't want to be on those mountain cliffs with all that solid ice.

the other thing i dread is using the generator in a blizzard. i can do it, but i don't want to have to. i just want winter to be over, so we can have spring. spring is dry, clear, and windy here, until the fourth of july. no rain at all. just sunny and a little warmer.

in fact, this kind of moisture, in late february, is unusual here. generally i think we get about zero, between january and the fourth. the way it is, it could be because the whole weather system has become unhinged. but in a place like this, that is ordinarily so dry, we don't quibble about an extra snow storm. we need the snow.

i guess the difference between the people who have lived in this remote mountain valley of southeast new mexico, for a long time, and those of us who just got here, is that we who just got here are traumatized about the driving, whereas those who know how the system works say, of course it's hazardous driving, but we need the snow. the snow seeps into the ground, replenishes the water table, puts some water back in that we've been steadily pulling out. the snow is necessary, and increasingly rare.

i've been taking a break from politics for a while. it's good to have a grownup in charge. one can trust the government, sometimes, to do what governments are supposed to. if one can trust, one can go about living one's life.

rage will subside. let the proud boys yap about how some pedophiles stole the election, or whatever. people say what they'll say. but somebody has to keep the world going, no matter what the weather, and dig us out of this blizzard. thanks to those guys, who are out there plowing, and who will put up the power lines, if something should blow them over.