Back to the winter wonderland

After almost a month away, I drove a rental car (4wd) from Mora, NM (where I was visiting my friends at the Hummingbird community) back to the lake and arrived at home last night at about 5pm to this:

I think the house is in there somewhere

the back deck of the house (outside)

the back deck from inside

I had heard about all the snow that had fallen since I left on Dec 20th but the drive was fairly open until I approached Pagosa Springs where they had been hit hard.   I found that my bearings are screwed up with all the snow. I get nervous when the snow and ice begin to encroach from the sides making the road appear narrower and narrower.

Hwy 160 was clear between Pagosa Springs and Bayfield before I took my turn to head north 25 miles up to the lake....except for the beautiful blanket of snow that surrounded all of the landscape around me. A saw one little deer on the side of the road in the snow waiting to cross on Hwy 160. I was wondering why they don't hibernate like the bears. They have far less fur to keep them warm. It'd make my driving about a lot less stressful if they could just do that for me.

I drove the rental to the airport this morning to drop it off and to pick up my car that I parked there 3 weeks earlier. I brought my big red, snow shovel and needed it as you can see from this:

I started digging but my Liberty wouldn't budge. I got some help from two maintenance guys at the airport. Without their help, I'd probably still be there struggling. As it was, it took an hour to get the snow out of the way and off the car to make my way back home.  Those expensive all weather tires proved to be worth it.

I've decided that it's an interesting challenge dealing with the snow when I'm not in a hurry which I rarely am these days. I'm not sure that it would be so fascinating if I had to shovel snow every day to get to work by 8am for example.

Kent and Lydia have a contract on their house in Houston and plan to close on Jan 20^th. If all goes well, they should be able to make it up before Feb. We'll all be living in the house together for a while since it's the only structure that is winter worthy. They are so excited about coming up as am I.

The whole experience will be much more enjoyable with them.

I am thinking that one of us might want to keep a place somewhere in warmer weather in the event that we want a respite from the snow. We'll see how it goes as we're all in search of a simpler life.