January 7, 2011 Snow Showers

The snow showers were not as predicted.  The DOT closed my main route home with the estimated time for closure: 4 hours due to a jack knifed tractor trailer.  It could have been worse.  Instead of HR calling me with that dreaded news, I could have been on the interstate, tied up in the "delay"; I don't call that a "delay".   My boss was wondering when I would be going home and my HR department called to tell me that they would soon be leaving.  I looked out the window at the swirling snow, noting the accumulation was about the same as the blizzard of a week ago, although the weather people were reluctant to call this snowfall a storm, and kept referring to it as  snow showers.  What other profession, other than meteorologists, could you ever be so wrong at your job and predictions, and be welcomed back with open arms the next day?  At my job, if I was that wrong, and consistently, I might add, if I was that wrong, then I would be fired.  But not so for these people; they are welcomed back day in and day out, and, even give raises.  
I finally did leave work , taking Route 17K all the way down to Montgomery, then onto Route 211 for a long and windy ride home.  The first 10 miles were slippery and treacherous, but really beautiful.  The trees lining the roadway were outlined in thick, fluffy snow, and the houses were quietly framed in the white, silencing fluff that so many fear.  The driving pace out of Newburgh was slow, with poor traction.  It took about 20 minutes to go 4 miles, but people were surprisingly respectful of each other's space and pace, and we all traveled safely.  When I arrived at Montgomery, the roads were pretty clear.  I was actually driving on pavement, then on to Middletown area, and again, the roads were plowed.  Surprisingly, it only took about an hour to travel home 24 miles; not that bad a time, considering.  Apparently, Montgomery and Middletown still know how to plow their roadways. 
There is something quieting about snowfall, that makes me want to be snowed in with my writing, meditations, jewelry designing, reading and maybe a few friends, just to curl up with a book and make to world go away  But maybe just for a little while, until I could find serenity.

I went outside to take some pictures of the birds, flitting about, (the birds, not me) feeder to feeder, the snow on the trees, but when the wind kicked up decided better of it, until the next day.  Then I was able to capture the deer tracks crossing with the rabbits and raccoons, squirrels; the deer really did a number on the Yews and rhododendrons.  They are this hungry and it is only the beginning of January?  Really, with all of the fields and woods around, they choose to come into a neighborhood and find their food?  There is a farm down the road, Distelberger's Cattle farm; you would think the deer would want to try their luck at the farm with the cows having their hay outside, but no.  They travel all the way across the fields to eat the domesticated landscape.  Maybe they just thrive on adventure.