An afternoon walk to the college -- let me rephrase that, an afternoon slide to the college brought photo ops and danger.
I'm not sure why I decided to climb the up-the-down. Halfway up, I knew I'd made a mistake, but one can't turn around on the narrow winding metal stair, so up I went to the top, only to stay put in one spot, shoot a few pictures, turn, and head back down, clinging to the step and the rail. 
After crossing at the one stop-light nearby, I got stuck -- literally -- in knee-deep snow, piled up by the university plow, then left to melt and freeze. Sucked in to my knee, I couldn't un-suck my right leg to move forward, so after some struggling and much laughing, I twisted, re-set my left foot behind, gained traction, and pulled. Success. Then to Abbo's Alley, where at least two others have trod since the snowfall, but where I was the only human among many birds. Drifts of snow revealed deer and dog prints and evidence of low-slung creatures (possums? raccoons?); the creek ran and trickled under patches of ice; the fish lay low in the pond; and the sun broke through momentarily in long rays knifing through the forest.
Mikell Lane proved the true test of courage. It's hard to slide uphill, but today that's what I had to do. Mine is not a road that's salted or plowed, ever, stranding my neighbors on Oak Hill Circle, one of whom posted to the community email today, offering $50 to someone -- anyone -- who would come scrape the street. I'm not sure what difference the scraping would make since any driver would then have to climb up the skating rink in one of two directions. 
There's this about snow: seductive silence and stunning stillness.
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