We’re having a bit of a blizzard. It’s not the first snow of the season, but it may be the turning point that tells us that it really is winter. Rick and I waffle on this. When does winter start? Because there are always false starts–snow that whitens the landscape…and then melts and warmer weather returns. Then we wonder if we were foolish to put away the gardening tools, or construction materials. It’s always easy to call in hindsight–but in the moment? We second guess ourselves. The correct call is always after-the-fact; it’s winter, when it sticks.

This time, we’re in a snow storm at the very time that my friend in Hawaii (Big Island) is having a snow storm. We do not often share similar weather. Ours is normal for the season. We emailed this morning and she was hurriedly cooking up some grub, in anticipation for loss of power. It reminded me how well prepared we are. Power outages are not uncommon here–winter and summer. We used to tough it out–oil lamps, carried water, etc. But we finally decided to go all Girl Scout on it–you know, Be Prepared! Rick wired us up so that we could switch the house over to generator power. It doesn’t take much. We heat with wood so we mostly power lights, fridge, and well. We’re not so upscale that the switchover is automatic–but it just takes throwing some switches and powering up the generator. We’re ready.

That gives us the freedom to enjoy the snow. Sure, there’ll be shoveling tomorrow–and it’s probably time to put the snowblower on the tractor. But right now there’s the quiet of the falling snow. We’ll get a couple of inches, maybe enough to strap on some snowshoes to go out and enjoy it. I think that this time, it’ll stick.