Housebound

 I can't believe the whole neighborhood has been housebound since last Friday when we received a huge dump-load of snow followed by very cold, sustained temps.

 OK, I have been out once, on Saturday, to cut a Christmas tree with John and make a quick stop at a grocery store.

 

 We don't have good snow removal here, not like in the Midwest or Northeast where every town has lots of equipment and budgets for it each year. Our theory is that it will just melt in a day so why bother, take a snow day, people. But the schools have called four snow days in a row, and OSU has called three, right when final exams were supposed to start. All streets are snow-packed and icy.

 The rain chain at the edge of the house has been frozen for days. It's a bit much. I have cabin fever.

  I'm seeing things, like gargoyles on top of fence posts. You see them too, right? Depending on my mood they are irascible monsters howling at the sky, or nice little bears reading books. Every post has one.

Well shoot. Might as well put my dismantled little studio back together and draw some polar bears. 

They are images from my grandson's 22-month-old mind: the polar bear taking her morning swim at the Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago, where you can watch her from below as she glides through the water with thousands of bubbles streaming behind. Not a bad thing to think about on a frozen winter's day, housebound, in Oregon.