Well, folks, we are officially snowed in. Well, not officially. No one has knocked on our door and said, “Susan and James, you are snowed in. Please don’t go anywhere.” If they did that I’d freak, because we don’t have a lot of groceries. Here’s what we have:
three bags of chips, assorted
six apples
two oranges
four bananas
one large Hungarian salami
one block jalapeno montery jack cheese
some chocolates
Bert, the 3 lb cream puff (and we can’t eat him because I’m hoarding him, plus I’ve named him so he may join the ranks of the Live Forever Canada Day Cupcake)
In other words, were we to be seriously snowed in, we could starve. It’s a real concern. It could end up like The Road, by Cormac McCarthy up here on Silverstar Mountain. In case you haven’t read that book, it’s about this man and his son wandering through a post-apocalyptic world. There’s hardly any food left and people have taken to eating each other. (I’m not giving anything away here. People always eat each other in post-apocalyptic scenarios. That’s what makes them so gripping.) If this snow continues, James and I may have to practice our commando maneuvers just to make it out of here with all of us intact. The good news for us is that all the kids in checked suits will be as easy to spot as stray couches they lie in wait for us near the outdoor firepits, hotdog sticks at the ready.
I’ll keep you posted. Could be it often snows like this up here. It is, after all, a ski resort. Still, I’m from the Island and this sort of thing comes across as an emergency to me.
Finally, I got the sweetest note from a student from Ontario. She’s one of the people who will be voting for the White Pine Award. She said she liked Another Kind of Cowboy but was uncertain whether to vote for it. She was going to read the other nominees several more times to make sure. I encouraged her to go with her immediate instinct and VOTE FOR COWBOY! Here’s why. My husband and I are snowed in on Silverstar Mountain. We could, at any moment, be eaten by marauding youth in oversized plaid snowsuits. And I wrote Another Kind of Cowboy, so I’m biased in favour of it. If you are a White Pine voter from Ontario, I encourage you to heed this advice. If I was on tour in your area I’d tell you myself, but I’m not because I’m snowed in.
Until later…
New motto: Bert the Cream Puff will be the last to go.