I had had enough of winter already but the forecast was for more snow on Monday night, February 1st, or Tuesday morning. When I got back home after teaching my evening class, I decided to park at my gate so I wouldn’t have to worry about the road. One winter when I was living in my cabin, I had to walk up the very icy road every night for three long weeks. Tonight’s walk wasn’t hard but I used my hiking stick and moved slowly.
When I awoke the snow was just beginning, and I thought I had better get out of the hollow quickly so I would easily make my ten o’clock eye appointment and my twelve thirty class. The drive along the farm road was slippery but Seneca Hollow was fine and I had plenty of time to make the eye appointment in Blacksburg. Dr. Jacobs was midway through his very thorough exam when he asked me if I had time for the glaucoma test, which involved eye drops that would blur my vision for several hours. He said I could still drive if I wore sunglasses so I figured that I should get it over with. My vision was blurry when I left around eleven, but the drive to Radford wasn’t hard.
I taught my first class with blurry vision (I could hardly read the poems we were discussing) but I started getting worried when my eyes were still fuzzy and extremely sensitive to light at three. I called the doctor and one of his staff members told me that it could last a few more hours and not to be concerned. However, my eyes were the same when my three thirty class began, and more alarming was the information from a student that in her mother’s case the condition lasted three days. That was very unsettling and my sight was unchanged when I taught my last class at five. It was now dark and I certainly couldn’t drive home with blurry vision. I decided that I would just sleep in my office (which I have done very occasionally before) and midnight found me lying on my Thermarest mattress warmly snuggled in my sleeping bag, my vision finally okay.
By six I was up and working and when I checked the weather report, it said the day should be sunny and with temperatures in the low forties. That would be perfect for working on my road so I drove back to the hollow and headed up my road. It was slippery and bumpy but I made it fine and by ten thirty I was on the tractor scraping the warming road with some success. I worked for almost three hours and the road was much improved. I could see dirt in many spots and that meant that I would have traction this evening. I drove to Radford for office hours and my five o’clock class and then went out for dinner, since I was so confident that my road was in good shape. I got to the main gate around nine and the farm road was very tricky. The snow on top had melted and then refrozen and I had to keep my speed up so I wouldn’t get stuck. I wasn’t too worried about my road because of all the work I had done, but as soon as I passed my gate, I realized that my work hadn’t done much. The entire road had refrozen and was terribly slick. I was halfway up and I wasn’t sure what to do. I could park there, where it was pretty level, and walk up the remaining three hundred yards. But that would mean that in the morning I would have to back down over three hundred yards of very icy road. I decided to go for the top and hit the accelerator. My truck fishtailed up the hill bouncing hard against the built up, rock hard snow on the sides but I made it. I wondered if I had damaged one of the new tires, but they seemed okay when I checked them an hour later. This ride was too much and I had heard that a big snow was expected as early as tomorrow night. Big Bend seemed a million miles away.
After another restless night, I decided that I would spend the next three nights in Christiansburg. I packed my truck with enough stuff for an extended stay and then went to feed the trout. Half way to the trout pond, I hit a patch of ice and fell on my back. I lay there cursing the universe, shouting histrionic phrases like, “What have I done to deserve this?” but very close to genuine tears. I slowly got up and immensely relieved that I wasn’t really hurt (though my good knee was a bit strained) I changed my tone and thanked the hollow for all it had given me. I fed the trout and very gingerly worked my way back to the truck. When I turned the key, the engine cranked but it wouldn’t start and I almost panicked. I tried the key a few more times with the same result. I walked up the hill a bit (to where the cell phone worked) and called Nissan where the service manager told me to try it again and check for a particular icon on the dashboard. Wonderfully, the truck turned over and started and I was on my way, very slowly, down the still hard and slippery road.
When I got to the pasture I called Mike and told him that the earliest I would be back was Sunday afternoon, and that if he couldn’t get to my road by then, I would just stay another night at the Microtel in Christiansburg. He was fine with the plan and I felt much better that I wouldn’t have to battle the weather for at least a few days.