45 and rain, rain, rain.
February is leaving us with, well, not a bang, but a very wet goodbye. There is flooding all along the Ohio River as the snowmelt and the rain combine to produce massive runoff. There will likely be some landslides, too as the trees, already damaged and stressed by the ice and snow, lose their grip on the land and topple. Then, in this area, we have what we call slips. The ground just gets too saturated, and the clay slips downhill. With the rain, the soil loosened by the thaw, and the clay composition of the dirt here, there's a strong likelihood of slips.
We are high and while not dry, there's no chance of flooding on our land. We're on the side of a ridge, far above any streams, so that's not a worry. Slips are, though. We had a massive slip on our driveway years ago, that brought mud many feet deep and trees tumbling. It took a dozer and days of work to clear it. What a mess that was. I pray we won't have to clean up another one.
We're not just saying goodbye to February at this house. I finally had the landline taken out, effective today. The phone service went out sometime last week and the company, Frontier, is terribly slow about repairs. We'd been debating whether we needed it, and this latest outage decided the matter. So no more house phone. How will we like just relying on cell phones? I think, honestly, we'll be fine. Over the past few years the cell reception has really improved. Gone are the days of the phone booth, as we called the one corner of the deck where we could get reception. Gone also is a monthly bill, always a good thing, right? So it's also goodbye to 372-5861, our phone number since we had the phone put in around 1981, at a cost of over 600.00. That's because the line had to be run so far to reach our house, over a mile.
I often think that those who live in towns and cities are so limited. My granddaughter Haley, who recently moved into her new house in a small city, said yesterday how odd it was to hear people just outside her yard. I can appreciate that. We have such freedom here to yell, walk outside in our underwear if we want to--I never do, but can't say the same about Larry. We can sing, and do whatever crazy thing we like with no one to observe. We rarely hear anyone else because other houses are a good distance away; their cars and four-wheelers are the only thing we hear usually.
But this freedom has its price--slides and snowbound, falling trees, well issues, power outages, and more. Nothing's perfect in this world, but I choose the occasional inconvenience and the frequent hard work. Each of us makes our own decisions about how we want to live in this country. Another freedom we take for granted.
We used to be that isolated...oh my how I miss it. My neighborhood has become so crowded & noisy.
ReplyDeleteWe still have our landline but no phone. We kept our phone for years because the only way we could have internet was through a phone line. We finally were able to drop our phone but keep a basic line for internet alone.
We still have a phone line as we need it for internet. No house phone, though. We live at the end of a small, country road. No neighbors, within view, and no traffic. If you come to my house it is with a purpose or you are lost. Mostly lost people :)
ReplyDelete