By Mike Johnson
Winter slows us down.
The weather gets extreme.
The road gets tricky.
Darkness arrives by 4:30.
We have to plow a mile of private road just to get to the mile of county road that leads down to the highway in the valley.
That highway is another 22 miles to town.
Nobody just drops in here, especially during winter.
As a recluse, I like it that way.
My social wife gets through the isolation by arranging get-togethers with neighbors on the mountain.
If the roads drift in, we can still walk to each other’s’ homes.
Scheduling anything off-mountain in the winter is iffy.
Margie actively runs our snow plow group, communicating forecasts, plow times and gathering neighbors’ specific needs to get off the mountain.
But large storms take time to settle and clear, resulting in being snowed-in.
The most horrific was the winter of 2016, the worst in 75 years. 13 days straight of blocked roads. Another 17 days spread throughout the winter.
So we respect the weather.
And are grateful our retired lifestyle doesn’t force us to commute to some job.
I especially appreciate this on Mondays.
Decisions and actions made decades ago continue to payoff today.
In fact, we've cleared our schedule for the entire month of January, just so we CAN stay on the mountain.
We'll snuggle in with books, movies, ping-pong and general tinkering.
Let it snow.
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