Tiny ice crystals glistened in the beam of my headlamp this morning — not a lot, mind you, but there they were, the closest thing to “snow in the air” I’ve seen this winter.
Those weren’t even flurries. It certainly wasn’t a squall. I say it still hasn’t snowed this year on The Mountain.
Our first snowfall last year came in mid-November, ushering in what would be a brutally bitter season. The winter before that began, as I recall, very much like this one — relatively mild, that is. We didn’t see measurable snow ’til New Year’s Night.
Oh, but we made up for the late start. From January through early March of 2022, in a place that sees an average of just eight inches a year, we got over three feet of The White Stuff.
Winter in Ozarkansas is Forrest’s box of chocolates.
We have no clue about what’s comin’ our way this time. Regardless, we’ll be here.
Deb got her shower before leaving for work, and I decided to grab mine mid-morning. I adjusted the taps to their customary positions and turned on the shower head — ice-cold.
The fifth-wheel’s water heater can run on either propane or 120VAC (or both). We used gas until we got grid power, and since then we’ve heated our water exclusively with electric. I checked the breaker, which was fine, then flipped the propane switch and crossed my fingers.
It worked, and I got a warm shower (only ’cause I didn’t have the patience to wait for the tank to get genuinely hot). At least our water heater wasn’t completely dead.
With Christmas weekend and all, we hadn’t picked up mail recently, so I had an errand to run. On my way out, I grabbed a shovel from the shed and tossed it into the truck. (I noticed that the wind had deposited a whole bunch of cedar berries in the bed. Interesting. Tasty.) I stopped at each end of the driveway and shoveled away rock (essentially large gravel) that had been dragged onto the road as we come and go.
Our neighbor appreciates that — the wheels on her micro-compact Honda aren’t very big and the tires aren’t particularly stout. And while the rest of the road naturally is what it is, we at least can scrape our driveway back onto our driveway from time to time.
I left the RV’s water heater running on 120VAC all day, just in case cycling power and my other fiddling had some effect. It didn’t — the water was barely warm when I checked it late this afternoon.
I suspect that the heating element needs replacing, which is neither expensive nor difficult, merely time-consuming. What I’ll probably do is order the part (along with the special tool required to remove and install it) and wait for a decent weather day (read: warmer and dry) to do the job.
In the meantime, we heat our water with gas.
On October 9th, 2019 — a year to the day before I launched Ubi Libertas Blog — I posted my thoughts on the 2020 presidential election to my Facebook page. I used to do that sort of thing, on one topic or another, almost every day.
Then, on the night before the election the following year, I republished that post here. I titled it, “Peering into the fog.”
Respectfully, I ask that you read it.
It’s been over four years since I wrote that. And while it doesn’t qualify as prophecy, it took a dark and unpopular look at what I believed we could expect from the Left in the years that followed.
And I got some stuff right — not because I’m prescient, but because I pay attention.
“When the smoke clears, what remains will not resemble our country as we once knew it. Progressives will see to that.”
October 9th, 2019
One more thing — you’ll notice that at the end of that 2020 blog post it says, “Follow Ubi Libertas on Facebook.”
At the time, yes, this blog had a Facebook page. But a week after Doctor Dementia was installed in the Oval Office, that page, along with my personal profile of 11 years, unceremoniously were canceled and deleted.
No explanation and no recourse. Just gone. I have a pretty good idea of what happened — and it confirmed everything I’d been saying.
Since then, I’ve poured myself into this blog. I appreciate your kind attention.
Take care of yourselves, Patriots. Stay calm. Stay sharp. Stay free.
#WiseUp #LibertyOrDeath #Ungovernable
#LetsGoBrandon #FJB