Currently I watch a blizzard out of my window. A woman in a black hood walks down the road and picks up speed as she turns up her front path. Two cardinals, blood red, seem to jump out out of the bush by her steps: in a second they disappear. Where in the world did they go?
There has to be a porthole somewhere where I could poke my head above this white, white, and gray that has taken over our town for the last three weeks. Merry's been out of school for six and a half days straight, and even Bea (who wakes up and demands, "Where's sunshine?" and then concludes: "Down to seep" or sleep) is starting to find her own ways of coping: popsicles and chocolate. Every time we put her in her chair she looks at the freezer and demands: "Poptoose!" The other day I found her with a chair up to the freezer, holding an ice-cream scoop from the drawer. Goal: sherbet. Hey, if the poptoose is "all down" (all gone). . .
Today Merry gleefully led me to a pile of gold coin wrappers and smeared chocolate behind the couch, where Bea had been taking advantage of the left-overs from our Valentine's/Birthday tea. I cleaned it up while she napped but then later as she and I sat sharing a banana, she said: "Chocate!" and scrambled down from her chair and made a bee-line for her happy place behind the couch. "All down?" she said. I must admit I have been indulging in similar coping mechanisms, such as "evening up the cake." You know that game. With a fork, you trim the cake so it's even, and that takes a lot of concentration and a lot of eating.
Elspeth and I were having a knock-knock fest the other day when we deviated mercifully into riddles:
Mommy: Why did the elephant go out of the house without his coat, hat, scarf, and boots?
Elspeth: Because the stores were all closed.
Mommy: No. Because it was summer outside.
Elspeth (eyes round, astonished:) I didn't think of THAT!
Well, I've been pouring over the calendar, and though for a few blissful hours a couple weeks ago I forgot entirely about the existence of March (I like to skip right to April and the first robins), winter can't last forever. Right? Right? It can't possibly. . .last. . .forever. . . .
