SNOW
A week ago a big snowstorm was predicted for Asheville, maybe 10 inches. A storm 1000 miles off the coast of Washington State was going to cause a major snow event. The people of Asheville have heard that story before. Again and again a big snow storm is coming and then on the big day, maybe a few flakes flutter down. We’ve been fooled too often. And a storm 4000 miles away finding its way here. You’ve got to be kidding. If it was 200 miles away we wouldn’t believe it.
And then I read in the paper that the storm, Izzy, had dumped the most snow on Iowa that had fallen there in 52 years. Iowa is a long way away, still didn’t believe it. The governor declared a state of emergency and Asheville said the snow plows and salt trucks were ready. A TV video showed a convoy of electric company power line experts streaming toward Asheville. I began to take notice. In fact I was beginning to get excited while holding on to myself for the inevitable letdown when no snow would fall.
And then yesterday there was a confirmed report that Jim Cantore of the TV Weather Channel was in Asheville. Jim Cantore coming to Asheville is like announcing the Second Coming. Jim Cantore walks on water, sometimes sinking knee deep. Jim Cantore doesn’t ever visit Asheville. We only see Jim Cantore in his blue jacket being lashed by hurricane winds in New Orleans or barely able to stand as huge waves crash and then flood Miami. Jim Cantore only appears when the heavens are opening up or a town is being flattened to rubble. But there he was, according to the Asheville Citizen Times, in Asheville. Asheville. It didn’t say where he was or I would have driven over and touched his feel as we do with holy men in India and monks in Sri Lanka.
All night long the wind howled around my house. At 3 a.m. (I was up briefly, excited, not wanting to miss anything) there was a white coating of snow. It is now 3:30 p.m. and it is still snowing. For a while the wind was blowing so fiercely that snow was flying up and down and swirling in circles so strongly that you couldn’t tell whether it was snowing or not because the snow on the ground was being flung into the sky. But now the wind has died and the snow is still falling.
Like everyone on my street I am ready for the lights to go off when a tree snaps and brings down the power lines. Every electronic device in my house is plugged in and charging so that I can stay in touch with the world when the house goes dark. I have paper and wood carefully placed with a fire starter in the wood stove. I have plenty of kindling in buckets outside and enough logs to warm the house for a week. I am ready.
This is something that must mystify my European friends. Americans live in perpetual terror of the power going off. Europeans bury they electrical wires. Americans inexplicably string them on poles with towering, thrashing trees on both sides. You couldn’t think of a dumber placement. But that is what we do. And every time there is a storm the lights go out, but not only the lights, because however Americans heat their houses electricity is involved, either to electrically control gas heating or because the house is heated by electricity as mine is. Tomorrow the temperature will drop far below freezing to 20 degrees Farenheit or so. If the power goes off the temperature in my house would drop precipitously and if I didn’t have a wood stove (many of my neighbors don’t) I would have to stay in bed with ten blankets. People die in snowstorms from carbon monoxide poisoning from bad heaters or burn the house down trying to keep warm. That’s why the convoy of electric company trucks are headed down the highway toward Asheville. I think the prediction is that 750,000 homes in North Carolina will lose power. We know that will happen. People will be cold, but apparently no one has thought of burying the electric cables. Or they have thought of it and it seems too expensive. Or they like riding like the cavalry to the rescue and saving people when the power goes out, and would have to give that up if the lines were buried. We’re the greatest country on earth, we claim, and we can’t even keep the power on. In Texas last year there was a major catastrophe when the power plants themselves went down in a cold spell because of poor planning. It is simply too dumb for me to try and figure it out.
And in addition the wires are a major source of pollution, sight pollution. Try to put up a silent windmill to produce clean power off shore in the United States and everyone yowls at how unsightly it would be. And yet we string wires everywhere outside our houses, festooning our roadways with drooping black wires. You can see them in the photograph I take out the front window. When trying to photograph trees along the road in Germany I got great shots, here in the United States there is a wire in almost every photo.
So overhead wires are both unsightly and are certain to cause power outage after power outage. Americans prepare by spending money on expensive, used once a year but always necessary, gasoine generators (which can asphyxiate you if you are not careful) or piling up firewood. We would be better off with wires underground just rolling over and going back to sleep in our warm and comfy house.
But so far on this very windy day no power outage has happened. Susie sends me photographs from her land where the snow has fallen all day but the wind isn’t blowing and it is a winter wonderland. She heats her house with a wood stove to begin with so the storm can’t touch her, although it might freeze up the water pipe from her spring. She and Todd are out walking their land in their new snow boots and having a wonderful time. So must all the kids on their sleds in town. A snowstorm on Sunday when no one has to drive anywhere creates a wonderful feeling of excitement and in spite of the wires is beautiful. It has been a marvelous day.
BILLYBABA’S WANDERING 