Trapped Under Ice...

I was not here for "The Ice Storm" in 1998 so I didn't fully understand the things I saw leading up to this years event. People in grocery stores filling their carts like they only shopped once a month, at gas pumps filling spare tanks and generators...and all the while talking about "before". I have spent most of my life as a New Englander...so I have experienced blizzards that have crippled cities literally bringing large metropolitan areas to a screaming halt...but that was snow. We all know snow, it falls and wind blows it around...it accumulates on the road and piles up in our driveways but when the plows come by and the shovels come out we push it away and before you know it the snow is gone. I have learned this year that "ice" is a completely different animal. Standing in my driveway late Thursday night I listened to the hard rain hitting the ground around me and even as it hit the hood on my coat...as cold as it was...the sound was almost calming...then my ears heard something I had never heard before. In the woods across from my house I heard cracking and crashing sounds and I suddenly felt like I was in a Steven Spielberg movie and something was about to come through the trees making its terrifying appearance in the street right in front of me... Then it became clear that nothing was coming "through" the trees but that it was the sound of the trees themselves cracking and crashing to the ground as if being stepped on like match sticks. The thought entered my mind that I suddenly felt very small...how could something virtually invisible simply crush these huge trees as easily as you would crumple paper. I stood and watched for a while but the cold got the better of me and I went back inside...to bed. Upon waking Friday morning I was amazed at the crystal shell that now covered the entire landscape outside...everything appearing as if frozen in a snow globe at rest just waiting to be shaken back to swirling life again. The two beautiful birch trees that once stood in my front yard now bent over into the road as if simply brushed over to clear the way for something much larger to pass through...and then I understood. It is all about respecting the elements...and during this season when we hear words like peace on earth and good will towards man I will keep that it mind the next time the ice comes and I will be sure to smile warmly at my neighbors as we pass each other filling our carts, tanks and generators as we hang on and wait for the "ice" to shake the globe again...

Until Next Time
The Bonedriver,