It makes absolutely no difference to Red if there are 10 inches on the ground or none, if he notices at all, he doesn’t show it. He is working fiend, and I imagine this kind of snow might be new to him, I don’t believe it snows like this in Northern Ireland very often. The storm ended around daybreak, Maria – over my loud and ineffectual protests – came out with me (she has a wicked cold)) and worked with me. We dug paths around the porch, dug out the cars, brushed the windshields and the roof, shoveled out the feeders, hauled extra hay out to the donkeys and sheep, cleaned the muck and manure out from the barn (always impressive after storms, as the animals can’t move around much, they dump where they are), cleared paths from the barn to the feeders, hauled water out to the water heated buckets, got the dogs out, fed them, let the cats out, I made her some hot oatmeal with fruit and made her get back into bed. She needs to stay there.

Alan Davis, our plow man, showed up early and cleared out the driveway. I went shopping Friday and have good stuff to eat – free range ground turkey with vegetables, garlic, kale, tomato and small sweet potato and for dinner, multi-grain pizza (zucchini, kale, tomato, cilantro, ricotta cheese) for dinner. I got Maria some blueberry scones from the Round House, we have good books to read, plenty of wood. Last night, I was proud of the dinner I cooked (take that, you sexist people out there), fresh bay scallops on a bed of angel hair pasta mixed with kale, garlic, tomato, goat cheese and pesto. I put delicately flaked bread crumbs on the scallops as a thin crust and seasoned them with my secret seasoning (I won’t even tell Maria, she thinks I’m crazy but I insist if I give my cooking secrets away she will dump me for a younger man.)

We might have to bust out to go to Battenkill Books, Connie says there is a “huge surge” in orders, she is already past 940 and ran out of books Saturday. More coming Monday and Tuesday, she can guarantee Christmas delivery to orders placed by the 18th, I am confident we will meet the goal of 1,000 copies of “Second Chance Dog” sold at Battenkill alone. I’m hoping to trigger a fourth printing. If you are thinking of a Christmas gift, best to get the orders in now, Maria and I will sign and personalize each one, you will be eligible to win some gifts – George Forss bookmarks, photos, potholders, free Fromm Family dog food. Everyone cannot be a winner, alas, we are not that rich, but we are giving a lot of good stuff away – cornerstone of the new book tour.

You can check out the early reviews here. Warning, there are people in the book as well as dogs, but it is a happy story all around. No dog dies, that would not make a good Christmas book.

This storm was substantial – 6 to 12 inches around here, but not worth all of the Weather Channel and other hype. I don’t need to call the storm Elektra, it doesn’t need a name for me, and when all is said and done, this kind of storm is pretty routine around here, Maria and I have already been through enough of them, we just know the drill, it is not a dramatic or frightening thing. Like animals, the weather is being emotionalized and personified, more fuel for the Corporate Fear Machine that keeps us anxious so we will pay attention and buy those $5 a week smartphone weather alerts and ads for all the frightened people to see.

I can just ask my friend Jack Macmillan about storms, he ran the county snow plows for years (he was transportation supervisor) and he just looks out the window and can call the weather. It seems sometimes that this country is running on alarms, outrage and hysteria, it keeps the machine fat and happy. One of the many things I love about where I live is that nobody is frightened about the weather, I see plenty of old men shoveling their walks quite happily. “If I drop,” my neighbor told me, “I drop, it’s a better way to go than being in a nursing home, and we all die of something.” I love the old men up here.

I’m not buying in this kind of corporatizing of weather. Elektra is a dumb name for a winter storm, they might at least show some imagination. We are in for a bitter cold week, that will be some challenge with water and animal care and wood, etc. But it is not a drama, it is winter in the Northeastern United States and in upstate New York. We were ready for this one (I loaded the kitchen with big water buckets so we would have water for the animals if the power went out), we will be ready for the next one. And yes, there are lots worse ways to go than digging out Maria’s little toilet bowl of a car.