The pages from the months of October, November, and December have fluttered from the 2019 calendar and drifted into history and we have moved into January. Christmas had a bit of snow which messed up some travel plans but it wasn’t the end of the world and that is part of living in Newfoundland. Mercifully so far it hasn’t been that cold.

So far so good

The little wheel on the electrical meter in front of the house wasn’t flying around at the speed of light and the snow didn’t bury us. Don’t shake your head at me in disbelief about the snow. I remember an October evening where my son and myself had to sleep at my office because snow kept us from getting home to Topsail.

There was another year before that where myself and a couple friends were hitting golf balls on the 19th of December. There was yet another incident that I related some years ago where myself and my friend Bruce played tennis at the tennis court in Bowering Park on the 13th of February. Weather is like that in Newfoundland. You never know. The point I am making is that … so far so good.  This is January. The Christmas rush is done and I observed sadly that not all the people I knew last Christmas were around for this Christmas, but that is the nature of it all. It is the ultimate reality. The bottom line this year and the daily grind is that a full third of our winter is already done. That’s how I survive. 

Last night I mentioned to the missus that the days are getting longer, but I was saying that as much to myself as to her. We pretend we notice the lengthening of the days already but that really is an act of faith as much as anything else. 

We are dividing up the winter. It’s not a new concept; breaking up great endeavors or tasks into more manageable portions. The Chinese philosopher and teacher Lao Tzu said famously; “The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” 

Not to worry

So it is we roll into January with an eye on the road ahead; regularly checking  the fourteen day weather forecast. Nothing crippling there. No monster storm ahead. A month from now we will be well into February and on our way to another winter survived.

Last winter I never had to run my generator once because we never lost power for more than an hour. Snow clearing also went according to plan with a total of only one sheer pin for the winter and that was my own fault because snow blowers don’t like the sprinklers and hoses of a summer gone. 

This year naturally there is apprehension about power being maintained on the island with the cloud around Muskrat Falls and Holyrood generating and all the rest swirling around. Not to worry; a lot of that is political talk and the natural bent of most, but not all media, of always looking on the dark side of life. Don’t worry. We WILL make it. We are already one third done.   

NTV’s Jim Furlong can be reached by emailing: [email protected]