In the snow

It's 5F above with a wind chill of -17 and we are done with the three snowstorms in a row, totaling nearly a foot of the stuff. But the roads are (largely) cleared, and given that I am at this moment finishing the last of the Thanksgiving food, it was time for a little trip to the store. On my way down one of those strip mall side roads, I encountered one that had not been plowed at all--or at least, not on the side I was on. So I went British for a moment and then saw that at the corner, I was going to have to acknowledge my nationality again and scoot over to my own lane so the turning car could get in. Except, there was some poor guy down for a shopping day from Manitoba who was stuck on my side, in wongo amounts of snow. He was trying to dig himself out, but he couldn't get any traction. He'd stopped to push someone else out and then gotten stuck himself, and a lot of cars had passed him without stopping. I pulled into the Salvation Army parking lot (which was, actually, my destination) and brought out the bag of cat litter from my trunk that I carry around in the winter. As I was sprinkling liberal amounts of cat gravel around the tires, two other cars stopped, full of people much larger than me. Together with a guy who ran out from the Salvation Army, they helped him push it out. I honestly don't know if the cat litter helped at all, but I think that if I hadn't stopped, the other cars wouldn't have, either. When the guy said he didn't want me to use up my cat litter on him, I had to explain that I was stuck once because I didn't have any, and someone else had to push me out. Which is why I stopped in the first place. So thank you to the unknown strangers at the library parking lot in Idaho for getting me out, because you see, it had a very long-term effect.

I went inside the Salvation Army after that, thinking about this. I was looking for a plain brown sheet to use as a prop, but there were all of these new quilts that people had spent considerable effort making (new) so that strangers freezing in North Dakota would have something to keep them warm. There was a drawing for an especially nice Christmas quilt. And I started thinking about all of the people all over the world, doing quiet, nice things that nobody ever talks about. All over the world, there are people who are doing good things. People like you. People not like you. People with tattoos and drinking problems and no beliefs whatsoever. Religious people who believe in things you think are bunk. And whether or not you think some of those people are like you at all, every one of those good things they're doing count. The good things YOU are doing count. Right now, in the moment--and in chain reactions you can't begin to imagine. So smile. And keep doing those good things. :)

(no subject)

We still have no Christmas decorations up because well, we have no room for a tree and no surfaces available for any of our other decorations. Not to mention the fact that the decorations are in a box in the garage that I can't reach, and there are no lights out there, and the windchill is -17 anyway. I'm trying to figure out some creative way to have appropriate decorations, but...yeah. But outside the house has been rather decorative! Firstly, we had sun dogs all day. That's where the sun is trying to shine through a lot of ice crystals in the air, and it makes "rainbows" like parentheses on either side of it. Like so (photo taken with my Tracfone, so please excuse the poor quality):



I also discovered (while looking for some props) that Walmart sells frankincense and myrrh. Or at least, incense of those smells. Who knew?

And then tonight, I drove over to the university to pick up my husband and realized that it wasn't contrails in the sky, it was an aurora! I've never seen one (we had some solar storms in Idaho but it was always cloudy), and we've even gone chasing them here when there's been an alert, but failed to see anything. But with no warning, there they were! Even in town with all the lights, inside the car, I could see them. Red and green and white. So pretty! And sort of like aliens landing. That, or like some kind of celestial flash mobbing in the sky. :) I had to pull off the road and call the kids to go take a look, because who knows how long these things last. Then when we got back, I took a few photos outside despite the cold. I'm sure that if you got out of town, they'd be really amazing. They are fairly common here, apparently (although not always visible due to frequent clouds)--this place is magnetically comparable to central Finland as far as auroras go.





It was very cool! So even if we have no colored lights INside--the OUTside has been outdoing itself today.