In like a lion...

Yes, I know. It's been a while. Rest assured I have a valid explanation. The computer died and with a full blown winter storm coming 2 days later I was stranded, unable to get to my parents who had a new computer for us. The long story short version goes something like this... Right after Thanksgiving our pastor called for a fast(food) the idea of fasting from the computer admittedly popped in my head and I chose to ignore it. The church fast started and my computer died. nice. I tried hooking up our Internet to our laptop only to discover that Chloe had bitten the connection in 1/2 while I was tinkering with it. Message now received loud and clear. We would be fasting from the computer whether I wanted to or not. Warp ahead to about 3 feet of snow and 3 weeks later we are now back on-line. Simply trying to catch up at this point. I have written some blogs by loooooong hand and the following was titled Zero.

Zero December 16 th

How can zero be so cold? by definition it seems it should be neutral. Neither hot nor cold. But this I assure you is not the case. Zero. is. cold. Spending the last 10 or so years in a sweltering climate where we BBQ every Christmas has left us a bit in awe and honestly more excited then my three kids. The last time I really lived anywhere with measurable accumulation was fresh out of high school, I lived downtown Portland and I can picture a photo my sister took of me and my cat Bambi standing in the snow. The city of course shut down with the threat of a flurry. Eastern Washington is not so sympathetic. We have no less then 10 inches right now and Ethan had a 2 hour delay. Portland schools were all cancelled with their dusting. Today will be the coldest with a high of about 10 expected but the perfect blue sky and beaming sun dancing off the powdery crystals seriously has brought a new appreciation of my surroundings. Everything looks clean, white, fresh. I want to stomp through every billowy drift. My camera has not left my side. Every drip off the icicles sends my gloves flying as my frozen fingers try to zoom in and out, switching apertures in search of some combination that can capture the awesome wonder of zero. Maybe next year I'll be able to with more practice but I doubt it. A picture can never really show the bit of steam rising from a snow covered rose or capture the hilarity of a squirrel leaping a path to the nearest tree only to shower his buddy down below with an avalanche from the branches over head. Or the sound of V after V honking frantically in the sky wondering where their pond went. The crunching of snow tires and the belly rolling giggles of a sled being pulled over the icy ruts in the road can only be locked away in memories past. Everything has value and beauty, even zero.