JANUARY 28, FRIDAY (ACTUALLY SATURDAY)

SNOW

Today, Saturday, New York and Massachusetts are set to have a blizzard and we were waiting last night expectantly for the worst to happen to them. Jim Cantore would be there with the blizzard almost whiting him out. This time Asheville was off to the side as the storm would sweep up the Carolina coast to New York and New England. New York and Hartford said they were ready. They had seem big storms before. They were unafraid. It was all bravado. They were going to get sucker punched.

In contrast Asheville would get a measly one inch on Friday and then got half of that. The schools closed early and sent the kids home without needing to. It was all for nothing, deflating.

There was no panic. No one crowded into the grocery stores and swept the shelves clean as they did for the huge storm two weeks ago that we saw coming from off the Pacific coast. No power crews came from far away places to restore power. The salt trucks weren’t out. We all went to bed expecting nothing but cold and a little ice on the roads.

And then this is what we woke up to at 7:30 a.m.. More snow was piled on my back porch than was there in the lashing storm two weeks ago. Large flakes are still swirling down. There is no chance of driving down my driveway and our hill down to Warren Wilson road is impassible. It is too late to rush to the grocery store, too late to put salt on the driveway, too late to do anything but to enjoy the snow. Tom and Kathy are in Raleigh watching a basketball game with Caroline. Maggie, the dog, my guide in all things animal and visceral, is sitting here waiting for a walk because she can’t hold it in much longer. I’ll tramp through a foot of snow in my favorite sneakers with her and take a few pictures and then, when she is done, rush back in.

But one thing I am prepared for. The power never went out last week and I didn’t make a fire. The fireplace is filled with kindling and is ready to light. Wood is piled up on the front porch. All my devices are charged. I have precooked meals ready to heat on the wood stove. If and when the heavy snow brings down a tree and the power lines snap and the lights go out, I am ready.