random truths – Day 1,074 (Friday) – ice dance

It was a cold morning. Looking out the bedroom window in the dim 6:00 am light, the street glistened with ice edge to edge and as far as I could see up the road. It appeared to be free of either sand or salt, and the worry about driving on it began to kick in. The Jeep has 4WD settings for snow, sand, and mud, but not ice. 

The worry about driving was mostly unwarranted. The bigger danger turned out to be walking. Getting down the steps from the back door and down the driveway to the car was an adventure. Once off my own ice-encrusted street, the major roads were just wet. The sidewalks along John and Merrimack Streets were an adventure in ice, slush, and the slabs of stone that get slippery when wet in every season.

Ice slid over the skylight.

Inside the office it was quiet, but outside, the wind howled and ice slid with a roar down the roof and over the skylights all morning. 

The patterns of melting ice could be seen through the graphic shade printed with the image of blue sky and puffy clouds that filters the light through the highest of the skylights.  Other sky lights feature images of the Masonic Building and the mural on the wall of the Quilt Museum, scenes which would be visible through the windows if they weren’t covered by the shades that keep us from cooking under the sunlight. 

The arrival home was met with front steps encased in ice and the gutter across the front of the house sporting small icicles. That disappointing situation was believed to have been fixed when the gutters were cleaned in the fall, but apparently not.

I stomped on the ice on the steps with my feet and hit it with the edge of the plastic shovel to bust it up and shove it away. Despite the stomping and hitting efforts, Winston still slipped off the bottom step when he went out to pee. Once on the still-glazed walkway, he did a remarkable impression of the Disney animation scene where Bambi is on the ice and ends up sprawled on his stomach.

Dreaming, perhaps of ice dancing.

Win picked himself up, got his business done, and came back inside. Then he carefully picked the chopped chicken out from his dinner and left the prescription kibble in the bowl, which has been the process for every meal for the past three days. 

After dinner, Win enjoyed some undeserved cookies, usually awarded for the completion of the meal. He then spent the rest of the night sleeping on the couch, possibly dreaming about his recent magnificent ice dancing routine.