Creature Comforts

 It's one of those days again. Heavey. Snow is falling, it is beautiful... there is a fog. When it is snowing it is not as cold as I have been exposed to before. Makes me think of the creature comforts we all take for granted on such a daily basis. Water, warmth, food, privacy, electricity, entertainment, communication at the drop of a hat. 

     I have lived without these things periodicly in my life. Usualy at the same time cause when it rains it pours. This entry takes place when I was a kid mind you, and I think it was easier to cope. One didn't have the stress of figuring out how to get creature comforts back, you just enjoyed it. Yeah, enjoyed the moment. We had only moved to that area so we did not know anyone but family that was not close enough to help. There was nobody but us.  I remember making shadow hands on the refrigorator with the light from the lantern in a blizard. My Aunt who lived with us was 8 years older and to her.. it was hell.  To me, I got to spend time with her & my mom.  We didn't have water... it froze in the pipes. Not only did we have to melt snow for us,  (thank God for the snow, without it I shutter to think what would have happened), but we had animals to take care of.  Now they can eat snow, but it still does not cut the thirst in the critters.  So.. for anything we drank, washed or did that took water, you melted snow. The stove was open with big pots filled with snow, to heat the little area we were huddled in and to melt snow.  There was no privacy... it was too cold. There was no tv because the lights were out.  My father who worked 20 miles away, could not make it home. He was gone for days... stayed with my uncle. Talk about worry... he had a wife, a daughter, and a sisterin law, trapped in the snow with chores to do and he was helpless to get there. 

News bullitin... we made it. No thanks to me I might add.  I actualy made it more difficult.  My mother and her sister dug tunnels to the barn from the house because there was so much snow that it was up to the door on the house.  Another reason we melted snow.. to get OUT.  So with the snow being melted and shoveled.. they made a tunnel to the sheep barn and the chicken coop, with a hole going up too.. so that they could see and that would get us out to clear off the top of the house for vents to breathe.  Little did I know... that playing on top of the huge snowbanks... it would weaken the snow that was crusted over on top.. only to cave in.  All that work, gone with me stomping on top of it all.  Lesson 1. When nobody is talking to you in a small area ... it can be real lonely.   I understand what it is like when things get out of control and you can not change things to your favor instantly.  The best way to deal with things coming at you is to realize, it could be worse.  I have been thru worse, cause the story I just mentioned was a learning experience for a kid.. and a good one. 

   I know that things come in doses.  Loosing creature comforts is a pain in the ass but it is not the worst thing in the world.  When things hit me one after the other and there is no let up, I always remember, I have had it worse.  Everyone wants to be independent when things hit them, and that is a good trait. However I have learned that when things are not going well and someone offers a hand to make it not so tough... take the hand.  Not only does it make it easier to cope for yourself, but it allows the person offering to prove something too.  That they are there, and ready to go that extra mile .. for you.  It makes that particular relationship a bit stronger.   In this day and age, value of creature comforts are confused... if you have the ability to stay warm and full... that is the reward.. the rest are just modern convienence.

   I think back on the stress my mother must have been under... she was only 28, she had a 7 year old, her husband was stranded elsewhere, it was up to her to feed us & the animals, & keep us from freezing. It was the blizzard of 1968, & I will never forget it.  I can imagine how different it would have been if someone had been there to help.  I would have learned a different lesson, maybe I would have learned to share a bit earlier in life, instead of trying to do everything myself.  My mother is a little thing, always has been, just over 100lbs. soak & wet. Her stature meant nothing when you gave her a shovel...  btw.. did I ever say thanks mom & Wendy, those hours in the blizzard that you were not shoveling pretty much made my future happen........ we entertained ourselves, the lantern & refridgerator puppets, the animals, a few card games & I remember..............we sang.