Snow, snow…and more snow

The storm that we waited (and waited!) for all of yesterday finally arrived overnight. And now that it’s here, it doesn’t want to stop.

It’s been snowing steadily throughout the day and is predicted to continue until morning. Earlier I had to reschedule a couple of medical appointments, but fortunately we don’t have anywhere we have to be tomorrow. As for Sunday, who knows?!?

For us it’s mostly just a matter of inconvenience, although I do get a little nervous when it goes and goes and goes without stopping.

I’m pretty sure that’s due to a dream I had when I was nine years old and got to experience snow for the first time.

My best friend’s family traveled to Tahoe to ski and the two daughters each got to invite a friend to go along. It started snowing while we were there. Not hard, I don’t think, but enough to make an impression on a little girl from the San Francisco Bay Area.

I also wonder if it perhaps triggered a past life memory, because I dreamt of waking up and opening a front door that was completely blocked by snow. I can still recall being freaked out by the idea of being trapped inside a snowbound cabin, even though that was more than half a century ago.

Of course, a quick Google search showed me that it’s not all that uncommon. But geez, talk about claustrophobia! 🥶

Credit: @ETREVORPOWELL via REUTERS / Copyright: Reuters

A walk down memory lane

My title really should be “a climb down memory lane” because what I’m remembering is a visit to the Frasassi Caves back when I was living in Italy in the early 2000’s.

I hadn’t thought about it in years and years, but Andrea Bocelli just did a Facebook Live event in the caves and seeing that brought the memories flooding back.

The virtual tour video (above) will give you some sense of the immensity of the experience. I’ll never forget how small and insignificant I felt as we climbed down and down and down, moving through chamber after chamber of the caves — each larger and more fantastic than the last.

I also remember the constant dripping; the almost eerie stillness of the standing pools; and how cold it was compared to the warm weather aboveground.

I feel blessed to have had the opportunity to see such wonders, but I don’t know that I could do it again. I don’t consider myself claustrophobic, but I did find that I got rather uncomfortable the deeper into the earth we went. I had to work really hard to keep my imagination from dwelling on just how much dirt was sitting above our heads or wondering what would happen if there was an earthquake!