xtcian

hombre de nieve

1/6/09

Whenever we take our long jaunts to the other side of the country, sometimes our babysitter Laura comes with us; not just because she's so good with Lucy, but we truly enjoy traveling with her. Having grown up in Sinaloa, Mexico with no running water and a subtropical climate, Laura is a paragon of flexibility - something sorely needed when you venture into upstate New York in January.

When she's with us in New England, I look at some of the days we have - driving through sheets of icy rain, shoveling three feet of snow off the driveway, feeling your fingers go numb after five minutes in the wind - and I see it through her eyes. Why would anyone subject themselves to this weather, when it's so easily avoided? Just move to a place that doesn't have winter, fer chrissake! In Los Angeles, you may have bad traffic, but you don't have to put on five layers just to get the mail.

It's a miracle so many people willingly put themselves through the unmitigated hassle of a New York life, when there are so many less crowded, more temperate places to relax. Yet Laura always finds a certain delight in the bizarre relish these Northerners have for winter. She even makes me stop and realize how beautiful it can be:

taking cell phone pics for her sons in LA

One thing: Laura has never been on a sled. Not once. I've always teased her, telling her I'd go on a sled down a mountain with her, but she always said "Ah, señor-" in that way that means "not likely, funny boy." So it is with great honor that I finally talked her into it, and recorded her first sledding experience down the smallest hill in Columbia County:

I think Tessa is right when she talks about cruel winters, wind-whipped hillsides and traffic snarled by ice: there's something meaningful and healthy contained in inconvenience.