White Out

This snow comes in with a roar and a whoosh, as a fierce wind blows from the west and the flakes fly sideways. Last week's deluge was relentless but silent. Today's is loud and dramatic. It's a storm with more sound than picture, the kind where pioneers perished a few yards from their cabins because they'd lost their way. I have a sudden hankering to read Willa Cather, to tie a rope from our house to our car. I think of the power of the white out, not the correction fluid (which covered mistakes and offered a fresh start back before computers made it almost obsolete), but the white out of nature, which obscures and overwhelms.

As I sit here writing and listening to the sound of the wind and the trees beating against our windows, I hear another sound, a sound we've been waiting for these last five days but haven't heard. It's a snow plow, or, more accurately, a front-end loader, clearing our street (finally) in the midst of a blizzard. It's taking a while, since neighbors are offering coffee and breakfast and brownies. (We're a congenial lot here in Folkstone.) And it seems a fruitless occupation since the snow is blowing back over the road as quickly as they can move it away. Then again, maybe it's just wishful thinking. On some level I want to stay marooned. I was getting used to the isolation. The white out is fine by me.