A TRIP OUT AND BACK - AS IN
OUT OF TOWN.
If you ever needed proof that
an infallible GOD who built the cosmos and set the planets in motion and
oversees the universe doesn’t exist you only need to visit a gynecologist
office and see all the women needing medical service. Even disallowing periods, PMS and
menopause; women’s plumbing and reproductive systems break down more often that
a 1964 Rambler station wagon. You
would think the perfect creator could have come up with a more trouble free
system: or else you have to conclude that he actually does despise women.
My wife had an appointment
with her doctor in Portland (Maine,) about one hundred and twenty mile to
our south. We decided to go down a day
early and check into a motel,
enjoy a good seafood restaurant,
remain a second
night after her appointment and then return home leisurely.
But as Stephen king wrote in Pet Cemetery: when the baby wandered into the road and just missed being killed by a
semi-truck:
It didn't happen that way – he
goes on to describe the body of the baby being sucked under the truck.
A major storm (for this time
of the year) came across the mid west and roared into Maine at exactly the hour of my wife’s
appointment. Immediately afterwards we
pulled out of Portland in the rain and within half-an-hour we were creeping
along the freeway at forty-five miles an hour in a mixture of sleet and rain,
which soon turned into snow and sleet.
After leaving the freeway for the final stretch back home we were in a wet-snow storm that slowed our progress to thirty mph.
About 20 miles from home there is a huge hill
to climb and then descend - and this was on our minds the entire trip. We crested the hill in third gear with no
problem and then descended in second gear.
I am so impressed with this little Toyota RAV-4’s handling on ice and
snow that I should be a spokesman for the company: the computer controlled
independent all-wheel-drive constantly adjusted each tire for the road
conditions and made the trip back uneventful.
We got back at four-o-clock:
I fired up the wood stove and then broke out the snow blower to get a jump on
the plowing. After supper we lost
electricity, as we knew we would, but got it back about daybreak.
Early this morning, after a
banana and a glass of milk, I tackled the snow clearing. We received well over a foot in a
twenty-four hour period and so it took more than two hours to clear.
Now, back inside – the wood
stove is pumping – a hot cup of tea – and all is right with the world.
I love winter; but I think I
am ready for mud season (also known as spring here in the Western
Mountains of Maine.)
the Ol’Buzzard
