Hi all, and enough for awhile with far-off places. Here’s a piece about our own back yard, so to speak. Plus, you folks get to read it before it’s published by the Rapids Tribune a couple Fridays (or Saturdays?) from now. Enjoy!

                                    Winter Is Fun-For Penguins

            Our snowplow pal Roberta had just finished our road and the driveways of we few who live here year-round on Roche A Cri Lake. She does a great job and saves me tons of shoveling. Meantime I cleaned the snow off our rooftop disc to get our back TV signal. Three days ago (for the second time this January) Ruthie and I poured boiling-salted water down the shower drain for an hour to thaw the ice blocking the pipe to our septic tank. Did the same with the drain from the washing machine yesterday and finally freed it up after a week of not doing our laundry. I also used the long-handled snow rake to pull a foot of snow off our roof so it wouldn’t collapse under the weight.

            My wife, a total nut for cross-country skiing, and I-who am not-are now looking out our picture window. Ruthie gushes, “All this new snow looks so lovely out there!”

            A winter-hater, I mutter, “Yeah…for polar bears and penguins.” More loudly I ask, “What about so-and-so wintering in Florida? As our very dearest, most precious friends, wouldn’t they like us to come down and visit-right now?”    

            Ruthie feeds me her little smirk. “They are our friends, dear, but don’t go over-board, OK? Anyway, my skis are waxed and ready. How about if we get yours out? Skiing on this gorgeous new snow will be fun!”

            And yes I, too, have skis but I hide them behind the old two-by-fours in the basement. Suddenly, I reach behind and clutch my back. “Ouch! Jeez, sweetie, I’d like to, but…I must’ve sprained something while shoveling!” I blurt out a few more ouches so she’ll know I’m in terrible pain.

            Unimpressed, she does that smirk thing again. “Some stretching will fix you right up. Come on, get your skis from behind those 2x4’s and we’ll be off!”

            “You found them?”

             She says (Jeez, I hate that smirk!)…“Sure, two weeks ago! I applied new wax so they’d be ready! Then I put them back so you’d know where they are!”

            I try…”You know-we’re about out with our pellet stove! I need to go to town and pick up more bags pretty quick! So we don’t run out!”

            “Dear, we still have enough bags to last ‘til May!”

            I think fast. “Maybe but with these crazy cold spells you never know! I should haul another twenty or so bags into the basement-to be safe!”

            But she’s faster. “Gosh, those bags are…what? Forty pounds each?”

            “Yeah, they’re heavy. I’d be awhile getting them downstairs.”

            Clasping her hands, she does a hosanna toward the ceiling. “It’s a miracle! His back…is healed!”

            Twenty minutes later we’re out front and on our skis. Bundled up in three layers and wearing heavy gloves, my knit cap is pulled down past my ears and I’ve wrapped a long woolen scarf twice around my face. With nothing showing but my eyes, my groans are muffled. “Brr! I’m freezing to death!”

            Dressed in trim Spandex ski pants, light-weight jacket, and jaunty Nordic ski cap, she smiles, “Wearing all that stuff, you’ll be plenty warm in a few minutes! Let’s go!”

            We push off and soon we’re skiing through the woods. She’s breaking trail through the fresh powder and I’m following in her tracks and trying to keep up. Opening my jacket and undoing my scarf, I feel my thermals already getting sweaty. I gasp, “Whew! Sweetie, that weather guy screwed up when he said twelve above for the high! It feels like fifty!”

            She laughs over her shoulder, “Honey, by the time we reach Arkdale…and you buy us lunch…you’ll be sweating like its July!”

            Admittedly, it is pretty out here and I’m doing better than OK, but all the way to Arkdale? Hmm-I hope we have some very dear and precious friends over there…that can drive us back home!