The Big Winter I am not Afraid. I Like It

So do I look like I care if there is climate change? So far I don't give a damn. Yes, there has been more days below zero this year than all the rest combined of the last eight years we have been here. And yes, I am spending too much time in the house reading, or writing (I know, I have not don't much of that) but I am also playing my fiddle more and rather organizing my memoirs---what I can remember. The stove is very warm and the heat is healing, therapeutic, a soother of the soul.

Keep one thing in mind, it is beautiful out there, with all the fluff and purity---rather reminds me of myself but not in a Johnny Weir sort of way. The only down side is it is really hard to get around without snowshoes but that has also been done. Still, when the thermometer hits 18 below, and it has been worse some say, the desire to go out and even get the wood is challenging. I don't cry but I do find myself hustling and mumbling and even saying, "Jesus jumping Christ, it is a cold son-of-a-bitch". Then remember the picture of the frozen bottle of whiskey my kid, Ian, sent down from Alaska last year, taken while he was camping! He did not complain about the cold---the temporary loss of whiskey was a concern, however.

I say, Sweet Jesus." On a number of days when it was really down there, the birds did not even come out and left me wondering if they had in fact died in mass. I always recall my brother Crow telling the story of finding a mound of dead doves huddled against his house after a big freeze. Here, they survived and are back, not happy but back and fat with our sunflower seeds.

Ya, it is cold and ya, it is snowy but what is winter for. Not for pussies. My wood pile is getting low but the freezer does have two deer and a mound of vegetables and fruits. Tomorrow I am going ice fishing and yesterday we went snowshoeing. I love it. Climate change that is another issue. I like the cold but I don't want a glacier again.