HANNIBAL WAS CROSS
‘Tis folly to be wise
Call it Climate Change. Call it Global Warming. Call it Shit Happens. Call it anything you want, but Charlie was beginning to believe some of the stories that Grampa told about growing up in this little mountain hamlet.
Yes sir, I had to walk 5 miles to school –each way – uphill both ways – against the wind…. And in the winter??! – snow was as high as an elephant’s….
Eye, Grampa??
Asshole, boy! Asshole!
I had to make skis out of staves from a pickle barrel, and use icicles for poles. Snow was so high I had to climb out the attic window.
There’d been no elephants in mountains, until Hannibal crossed the Alps, and They didn’t run through Montana. As a site-designer, he was happy to ‘work from home’ after graduating, in the village he’d been born in. Mom hadn’t even gone to the hospital in Helena – just popped him out in a sterilized bathtub.
The smart ones had been those who moved down with friends and relatives in the foothills, when the snow really started piling up. When the Pastor/Mayor/Police Department had been notified that the plows weren’t getting through, and officials had no idea when that might happen, he suggested that everyone bring all their food to the church.
They’d rigged a flexible plastic tube from the air-conditioner vent, over the cliff. That, and a small fan pointed up the spire gave them and the small generator enough air to breath. The village weirdo geek had rigged a repeater/router to the lightning rod. The cell tower further up the mountain, was only up to its knees in snow, so they had phones and internet. The snow had drifted up and over the church, until only the steeple protruded, like a FOLLY. It helped to insulate it, even as it locked them in.
It was a cozy little group of 14, although, if someone didn’t pry young Billy McCabe and the Winchell girl apart, there’d be 15 by the time they were released. There were worse ways to spend a winter. Guess the best thing to do is what Grampa suggested. Just close the log cabin door to the snow, and don’t come out till spring.
WAIT! WHAT?? Log Cabin?? I thought you said that you climbed out an attic window.
Don’t be a smart-ass, boy! Nobody likes a smart-ass. 😳
Archon's Den 