Housebound

I took this shot of the view through the suite of three panoramic windows in my mother's bedroom to show how beautiful it is here today. The sun is strongly shining, and even though it's bitterly cold the water you see in the photo isn't frozen because it's salt water (Puget Sound).

Last night, very late, I heard a plaintive cry from down below, like that of a water bird in distress. But this morning there was no evidence of any creature in trouble.

The biggest problem with this is that everything is covered, under an inch of snow, with a layer of hard ice, and as much as I enjoy the scenery, I don't like being housebound. It causes me to reflect on how dependent we are on our modern forms of mobility, and I don't like that much either. I got desperate a couple hours ago, warmed up the car and tried a trial run up an unsanded hill about a quarter mile away. Slid backward, got myself straightened out, and made it safely home.

Maybe tomorrow some of this glare ice will melt, or the road crews will have enough stuff de-iced that I can escape captivity. But there's a fresh, even bigger storm coming tomorrow night. Then after that it's supposed to warm up, slightly.