Home Again

7:23

8:21

It’s 8:26, and I’ve been up since 6:45—first to a dark morning sky and now to light and whiteness, as the lake, yard, and trees are blanketed in snow. It’s a chilly 12°, but inside it’s nice and toasty as I write this, wrapped in a blanket and enjoying my second cup of coffee. It feels strange to be back home, back to my familiar routine of early rising: making coffee, taking photos of the lake, waiting for Evie to wake, and writing the blog. As I finish this at 8:52, a light snow is falling. 

Friday was our lucky day. We encountered open roads and little, if any, snow on the drive home from Indiana. We left around 9:00, taking Interstate 70 to Columbus, then 71 to Cleveland, 90 to 86, and finally home. We stopped twice—once on 71 and again at the Ohio–Pennsylvania border for cheap gas. I drove most of the way, but Evie took over for a good hour and a half of tough driving through flurries near Cleveland. We were home by 3:00, essentially a six-hour drive.

Woodlawn Road, Almost Home

Home

We assumed our parking area would be plowed, and it had been—though perhaps a few days earlier—because yesterday the snow was nearly a foot deep. We waded through it to the house, where I pulled on my rubber boots and shoveled the walk out to the car, and around it so we could unpack. Walking into the house after a road trip is always a little scary, especially in winter, as we fear a heating or plumbing problem. Thankfully, all was well. We quickly emptied the car, turned on the water and heat, and settled into the living room, marveling at the snow on the rhododendrons, the yard, the trees, and the lake.

Porch Steps

Yard

3:45

After a while, I started putting things away and unpacking my suitcase, then rejoined Evie in the living room. I soon got bored and went back outside, using my battery-powered snow blower to clear the driveway. I did some extra shoveling around the garage door so I could get the Outback out if needed.

Night Time

By 5:15, we were enjoying our wine, happy to be safely home after driving 1,600 miles. We listened to the news, then had dinner—Bob Evans sausages and eggs, easy and tasty. We watched a couple of episodes of our show before Evie headed up to bed. I quickly lost interest in the NBA, watched the first episode of Task on Apple TV, and then turned in—bringing to a close the often anxious final 800 miles of our drive home.

I entered a Zen monastery. The teacher had one simple instruction — ask yourself this question: “What is this?” And nothing else. Just get to grips with that primary question of your life. Stephen Bachelor