Day Trip

There comes a point in any winter, when one must say, "Enough, already." When this occurs, some go to Florida, Mexico, California, the Caribbean, but I stay here in the belief that a brief holiday in the sun will end, but upon one's return to Minnesota,  your view of the rest of the winter will help you redefine the meaning of the word "eternity."

After attacks of heavier than usual colds, me at the end of one  and K at the beginning of another, she observed the sunrise yesterday morning and said that she wanted to go for a ride. She had had enough of the cold's onset and winter's length. We bundled up and put Islay, the therapy scotty, in the back seat and headed in an easterly direction, toward Wisconsin.

We crossed over the frozen St Croix River between Minnesota and Wisconsin, headed to the top of the bluffs, left the freeway, and headed north, hoping that without too many navigatory tools (compass, map, previous experience) we could have a pleasant day meandering. As the suburbs gave way to more open countryside, beauty surrounded us, interrupted only by the occasional housing development plunked down on open land without a tree in sight. One gathers that largeish houses characterized by the incessant repetition of triangular shapes organized around a lump of three garages is the style of today.  After a while, our eyes began to yearn for good old American four-squares, bungalows, and converted cabins.

Far better were the older residential areas with lots of mature trees and houses which seemed to be designed to nestle into the rolling landscape. As the sun worked its way across the sky, the play of light and shadows on the forests and the snow were a constant delight to the eye.

But the most important element was the sun. The days are lengthening, and although the rough fingers of cold keep their grip firmly on our throats, we know that warmth is just around the corner, and we are reassured by the calls of the cardinals heard each time the front door is opened to let out the dog.

After four hours, we turned on the GPS and requested an interesting route, and the device responded with a recommendation which turned into a smooth road and a novel way home.

The cold remains outside, as do our colds inside, but our spirits were lifted by this little adventure, a kind of moving meditation, and I think the scotty felt exactly as we did.