Oregon Glaze

The snow made things brighter.
Nine inches in the Tualatin Mountains.

Add an inch of ice, make it 10.

Everything had a glaze on it.
Like the sugar water we froze on a salmon before shipping.

The wind moved and the trees crackled like the electricity in Young Frankenstein.
I fell a couple of times, checking it out when I should have been inside.

The ice crust would hold my 200 plus lbs in some spots.
Other places I broke partially through, pushing my balance back and forth.

I chipped the ice off the door of the car.
Started it up and melted things out.

When I got back to the house, I watched a robin fly across the yard.
It lit on the car, joining three others.

Drinking the water drops. Off the hood and windshield.
Some stood underneath snagging water drops as they dripped off the stabilizer bar.

I hoped I didn’t have a leak in my radiator.
I took down a bowl of water and set it on the car.

The structure must have been wrong because they preferred the single drops on the hood.

A little water must lube a robin’s colon, much sign was left.
Its raining now at 4:30, but it sounds like another day at home tomorrow.

Maybe I’ll write a poem.

The 8th. Things look a bit more icey out there today. A thicker glaze.
I looked up our road and noticed the leaning hawthorne was now touching the ground.

I heard some crackling up in the woods, but by the time I looked out everything was still again.

A long crack again as the neighbors non-native dropped about a 10 inch limb that bounced on the power lines and then blocked Riverview Drive.

If I went down to move it, I may not make it back in the house today. If we tried sledding on the cardboard today, we might end up in the Channel.

A robin sized bird flew across the shiny whiteness and into a tree below us. Crack and there went another 3 foot section of limb.

Kays got a number she called, apparently building trucks is very important to the Germans. Nothing planned again, I have to choose what to do.

Get up, build a fire, check the water, make some coffee, take some pictures, contemplate life, ah to be 40 again.

There’s a Towee freaking out cause he’s got a little piece of ice froze to his tailfeathers, hanging about an inch from his pooper. If he doesn’t stop twitchin this could be the end of him.

The Flicker made his first appearance, slipped into my view when I was checking out the Towee. I really should knock the ice off the feeder perches. Don’t know if I could make it back.

The young thrush doesn’t seem to be moving in and out of the feeding and watering area like the other birds. He needs a big thaw.

We all need a thaw.

-Jeffrey Kee