The World is Frozen

The world is frozen all around; the streets and lawns throughout the town, nothing moves save for one lone car slip sliding down the street between the cars parked on both sides of the silvered pavement. I watch anxiously and then with relief as he slowly navigates around the corner and out of sight. I bundle up with scarf and jacket, beret and boots to let the dogs out for a walk. Annabella, the youngest one rockets joyfully across the frozen lawn and tries to turn skidding along the frozen surface. Cara the older dog walks gingerly out to the middle of the yard. I stand inside the door holding it open just a crack. Bundled up or not it’s too cold out there for Canadian blood thinned by southern summer suns. The dogs have had enough and come quickly in. When it’s too cold for dogs to play in ice and snow it’s too cold. I sit in the warmth of my study with a cup of coffee, check my email, call my office staff; no-one should brave the roads on days like this. Even as I type the power goes off one more time this morning. The power lines are burdened by the freezing ice and weather. All morning we have been having rolling black outs. How do post-modern people survive without electricity? Do we have emergency lighting? How will I make another cup of coffee? Oh, no! The electric thermostat that controls the heat just went off, the temperature is dropping in the house, and the washing machine just stopped mid-cycle.

I bundle up, take my axe, and head out to the wood-pile to split some wood for the fire place and kitchen stove. The privy door is jammed open by a foot of heavy snow. I look in and see the hole of the wooden seat is ringed with frost. I gather my wood and trudge back to the house and dump the wood in the metal box beside the wood stove in the kitchen and build another fire. It’s a wonderful new-fangled stove with a pipe running through the middle that leads to the bathroom for the sink and tub. We have ordered a flush toilet and in a few months we won’t need the privy out back. Sure wish we had it now! You ought to see the stove. It has a wonderful oven for baking bread and the entire surface of the stove is hot, but it’s very cleverly designed. If you want the water to boil you put the pot directly over the fire-box, if you want it to simmer you just move it over to the other side. I tell you, we have baked some wondrous pies in this old oven, and just now the aroma of fresh biscuits is filling the kitchen.

What’s that? There is a click, the desk lamp just went on and my laptop screen just became brighter. The heat is back on. My coffee has gotten cold; I think I’ll go to the micro-wave to heat it up.