Why should I get up? I wonder that to myself nearly every morning as we close in on a year of pandemic shutdown. What is one good reason to leave the lovely cocoon of covers, that haven of warmth and comfort? We’re retired. There’s nowhere we have to be. The dog might beg to differ, if he didn’t enjoy bed time so much himself. I don’t schedule early appointments because I have to walk him first, and he doesn’t like to get up early. So, really, no motivational help from the dog.
That was my quandary this morning, and then I remembered: yesterday my sweetheart scored Juliettes at Zingerman’s Bakehouse. Juliettes are almond croissants, quite possibly the best version of croissants aux amondes this side of France. A Juliette waiting for breakfast is a jolly good reason to get out of bed, and I could hear a Juliette calling.
So I got up and set about the morning’s routine, which includes pauses at upstairs windows to see what’s happening in the yard. The sun was just clearing the horizon, and its long, low rays in the dogwoods illuminated every detail. Last night’s powder rested not just on branch and bough but on tiniest twig. The rising sun revealed intricate tracery in all the trees, after the way of hoar frost but with the high contrast of snow on bark. A little breeze lifted flakes and pats of mica-flecked snow from the trees and drifted it down, gleam and sparkle and flash. Pure Michigan.
A goodly amount of snow fell this week, but it didn’t bring the kids outside. I don’t know whether the temperatures–which were bracing–caused parents to keep little guys inside or if the tots, knowing that powder doesn’t pack, saw no reason to go through the rigamarole of donning and doffing layers of outdoor clothes. In any case, there have been no new snowpeople lately, no new snow art, just higher and higher mountain ranges, the work of shovel and plow.
From the perspective of a small dog, we’ve also entered the Time of Snow Tunnels, that point in winter when the snow thrown up on either side of a sidewalk is taller than he is. Snow tunnels don’t much cramp his style, except for his everyday, ongoing need to protect me from any passing vehicles with deeply thrumming engines: delivery trucks, dump trucks, city buses.
Year-round, he takes care of these bad actors by charging them to the full extent of his leash and instilling in them the fear of dog. But in a snow tunnel, he can’t see to assess a threat unless he stands on his back legs and props the front ones on the side of the tunnel, and sometimes even that doesn’t do it. Furthermore, chasing would involve leaping into snow higher than his head, a prospect to give a dog pause. Tunnels challenge our pooch’s self-image as head of ranch security.
Our North Carolina daughter used to have a German shepherd that actually caught the UPS truck, on a regular basis. He’d sail right over his electric and physical fences whenever he heard the truck coming. The conscientious driver would slow down to avoid him. At which point Rocco would jump in, place his front paws on the dashboard, look out through the windshield, and otherwise give every indication that he had arrived to help with deliveries. The driver took to phoning to say the truck was on its way, so that our daughter could call Rocco into the house.
Yesterday’s good reason for getting out of bed was the prospect of the Perseverance rover landing on the Red Planet. What a fabulous endeavor. Another daughter is a teacher, teaching virtually right now, and even though their school system is currently on winter break, she and another teacher were so excited about the Mars rover that they wanted to offer their kids a chance to watch the coverage with them. Their principal said they could extend that invitation if they wished, as long they made it absolutely clear that student participation was optional. As the two teachers left this conversation, one chuckled to the other, “I know just how to word it: participation is required and counts for half your grade.” As we all know now, the rover’s entry into the Mars atmosphere, its descent, and its landing went off without a hitch. Wow.
So the Mars rover was my reason for getting up yesterday. The Juliette worked for today. We’ll see what tomorrow has in store.
19 February 2021