Snow day in Bangor

A big day yesterday. Sam had to have hand surgery to fix a contracture of two of his fingers and his thumb. His surgery was scheduled for April 4 and it wasn’t really feasible to reschedule, in spite of the snowy forecast. So off to Bangor we went. We traveled up there (about an hour) the night before and stayed overnight to avoid an early morning drive in a snowstorm.

While he was in surgery I traveled around the city a bit. The weather wasn’t too bad. I wanted to walk, which is an almost daily habit. But not in the snow and slush! So I first went to the Bangor Mall. What a strange experience. This is a mall with a lot of empty storefronts. Many buckets placed under the skylights to catch the snowmelt dripping down from above. Deserted at this time of the morning, except for a few mall workers and a homeless person apparently sleeping in the handicapped stall of the bathroom. Eerie recording of a child’s laughter coming from an arrangement of coin-operated riding toys – presumably to entice children to ride? One of the storefronts was set up as an honest-to-goodness haunted house, left over from last Halloween and waiting for next Halloween. Creepy vibes really, but a good walking location. I walked until a woman came over to me and told me the mall was closing due to the weather.

My next stop was the park along Broadway. I just walked a short way to the coffee shop for something to eat and drink, then back to the car. It was beautiful in the snowfall. Very quiet and peaceful.

I had a beetroot latte and a bowl of oatmeal with blueberries at Wicked Brew, one of our favorite cafés. The beetroot latte was of course pink, and the oatmeal was deep vivid purple, from the blueberry juice stirred in. I ate my pink and purple breakfast and contemplated the falling snow. This particular location has a lot of meaning for me. My sister used to live around the corner. There’s a yarn shop across the street and a few churches on either side. I stumbled across a singing group called Women with Wings in the Unitarian Church basement while visiting my sister one year. Their voices drew me in out of curiosity, and the circle was open, so I joined in – it was a very special experience.

After breakfast, I walked back through the park and drove back to the surgery center. The roads were very slushy but not slippery. Everything went well with the surgery and I had no problems driving home in the snow. No problems, until I reached the bottom of our driveway, where I tried to power through a berm of snow left by the plow. The car got stuck on the berm, the two front tires spinning in mid-air. I tried shoveling the berm from underneath but it seemed useless. I thought we might have to leave the car there until spring decided to return.

Luckily for us, a passing plow operator helped us get our car back on the road. I drove the truck down the driveway and plowed the berm out of the way, then we drove both vehicles back to the house.

A few days of rest and for Sam, recovery until our next adventure – a trip to Canada to view the solar eclipse on Monday. Sam has a big splint on his hand but he seems very energized by all this excitement and relatively free of pain.