House in Soda Springs

On February 4 I wrote that the day before I was up at 7:30 and made a bunch of cereal. It was quiet in the kitchen at the house in Soda Springs. I warmed the oven in preparation for breadmaking and my hosts appreciated that when they got up they. They made delicious eggs and salmon and I made some eggs with a few leftovers.

By then there was so much noise in the living room. A number of people went to get cross country skis. My friend and I texted about what to bring when my dad drove her to the train after her class. I told her we needed a coffee grinder.

I held down the fort and we took turns digging our cars out. When everyone returned with the skis it was quiet time. I busied myself digging in the front. The other men in the house went skiing around 1 o’clock. They let us know at one point that the snow fall – it was a blizzard conditions – meant that there were no lines on the mountain.

For the next three hours the rest of us prepared to go cross country skiing. We quietly went out back. However, the snow was too much for us so we decided not to go. Later, my hostess and I left another guest at the house and returned the sleds to the lodge. However, we kept the skis just in case the weather improved.

By then it was nearing the end of my friend’s training back in the city. We had been texting all day. I called her when my hostess and I returned from the ski lodge. She told me that her class had gone late so she got a ride to the apartment. We discussed the absolute necessities.

Up to then the snow had been falling heavily. The cell reception was spotty and the roads were pretty bad. I only had a short minute to tell her that I was confident I could meet her in Auburn with the 4 x 4 when her train came in. Meanwhile, my host and his companion had returned from the mountain. I had been cleaning a space in the driveway.

My host had been offering to accompany me to Auburn. That was intimidating for me since I knew I could do it on my own. Hence, over the course of dinner I did what I could to say everything necessary for them to agree I was making the right decision to drive through a blizzard on my own.

I had to wind down my room when it was nearly time to go. My hostess showed up and told me she would finish up. I got in the car – which I had cleared off in anticipation – and took a couple of test bumps. The first one was to the road. I texted my Friends and family and then consulted the weather and my math. Then I went to Norden gas Station. By then I was confident of the ride.

It was interesting to do the same maneuvers on the freeway off ramp – steep grades and passing but at 35 miles an hour. It wasn’t new to me considering the day before but in this case traffic was really moving and the surface was nearly ice. I had a strong understanding of my location based upon offramp numbers. I also knew the rain would start at Baxter. When I got to emigrant gap the snow turned to sleet.

I made it to the gas station by 915. My friend had texted while I was fueling. On the way back I stopped at the grocery store to buy coffee. I shared story of my drive down she began to understand how crazy the drive would be. As we ascended to Soda Springs we saw that the road had drifts of snow and cars all over.

She took photos and as the drive continued we saw chain control, trucks stopped, spun out cars, a Caltrans helper truck and crazy giant snowplows. She let me know when our hostess texted and where we were on the map. We passed the Norden chalet, crossed the tracks and drove down our local street easily.

We did have to dig out the berm in front of the house. I also dug out my space before parking. My friend went up and had a glass of wine with our hostess. However, the whole house was mostly asleep so I made us a bed and texted my mom that we had arrived safely. We tried to go to bed but there was noise. We ended up sleeping at two.

Late in the morning of the day that I wrote this I made a meal and went to dig out the backyard for a few hours. The snow was about twelve feet deep and I noted that my friend had looked up at me from our room on the ground bottom floor. Eventually I dug out some stairs to the room. I noted that during that time one of the other guests had dug a tunnel to the back entrance to the house on the second floor .

Later I dug a trail using existing steps to the cars and slowly dug mine out. Then I went to drive across the street to another parking spot. I ended up getting stuck but thankfully the plow came by and I was able to get into my new parking spot. After that I had a beer and I noted that we had soup for dinner.

Afterwards we just wound down with a walk. By then everything had about two feet of snow all over it. I did a few things in the room and upstairs but mostly started writing. I had a hot toddy and ate Girl Scout cookies.

This is an occasional series chronicling my life. This Notebook Analysis series is meant to be contemporaneous piece developed as an agglomeration of my notebook pages. In each of these posts I used my notes to develop my recent thoughts.