If you came to this blog hoping for a post that considers the theology and the practicality of Valentine's Day, head to this post on my theology blog. Today on this blog, I want to capture the details of yesterday's drive back to Wesley from my North Carolina house.
I usually get started on long drives before the sun rises, but yesterday I left a bit later. A storm system had moved across my travel path from Saturday night to Sunday night, and I didn't want to be one of the first ones on the roads after they had had a chance to re-freeze. So, I left at 7:30, after there had been plenty of traffic. Some of the roads had been treated with some sort of de-icer; I could tell because of the white shadows on the pavement, along with the water.
There were a few places, however, where the water had started to re-freeze yet again. As I drove through Tennessee, I could see fog descend, but I was still able to see--and glad that I had left after daylight and that I didn't have to worry about frozen roads too. But then, as I drove through southwest Virginia, the scenes out of my window turned wintry. They had gotten 1-2 inches, judging by what was on the windshields of cars parked in the driveways and side yards. There were a few icy patches on the sides of the road, but no one seemed to be slipping. Still, I tried not to get too close to the side or too close to other vehicles. The snowy vistas were beautiful. I had expected something similar at our North Carolina house, but we just got rain and a bit of sleet.
And then, just like that, I drove a few more miles with no change in altitude, and no traces of snow at all. I thought I might have driven out of all the winter weather.
Hours on up the road, the view changed again. The grass was clear, with no accumulation on vehicles. But all the trees looked like they'd gotten a snowfall. As I watched some dripping, I realized there had been an ice storm. When I exited to get gas, I found out that a tree had fallen and cut off electricity; I found out because the first gas station I tried had no power. The second one had very slow pumps--it took me 15 minutes to pump half a gallon of gas. Yes, half a gallon. Luckily the maintenance person reset the tanks so that they pumped normally. There had been a power outage and the pumps tripped and a safety device kept them from pumping faster. Hurrah for safety devices and hurrah for maintenance people who know how to reset them.
As I drove away from the ice covered Shenandoah Valley, the sky turned a dusky violet, and I wondered if I might actually see snow falling from the sky. But I did not. I made it back to seminary, unloaded my car, unpacked, went for a short walk, and settled in for my 6:30 class on Luke. We had a great discussion of calls and discipleship and Luke's version of the Beatitudes.
I feel very lucky to have had this time to live on campus and devote myself to my studies this way. As I wrote to one of my friends who responded to my Facebook post: "I feel lucky, in that I know how lucky I am to be able to take these classes. I will look back and miss this time, which makes me savor it even more."
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