Monday, December 7, 2020

new name

You will notice that this is now "Sixteen Springs Journal." Another site, which I've had all along, will now carry my general observations about the village and its workings. Now that we've moved out here, and the pandemic has hit, this is the center of our lives. So this site will be more about this valley, and our lives, while the other one will be more about the village.

We have not abandoned the village. Our kids still go to school there, and we do our business there. If anything will save our lives in this pandemic, it will be that we have come to see a town of 800 people as the center of urban activity. And though the village has only about twenty cases (?) as I write, the chances are getting smaller that we are sharing space with them.

We do love the area though. We love the people and the feeling, everything. We are in the right place for us. See all those clouds? We can handle the weather. We're in this for good. And this place has been good to us so far.

Wednesday, December 2, 2020

A kind of rambling report

We got a gentle snow today - maybe three inches, and it's become very cold. The locals tell me that though the rain runs off and runs away, the snow is more important for seeping in, restoring the water in the ground, refilling the aquifer. So it's the snow they really love, though we are all wary of treacherous driving conditions.

Lately school is out, and the kids are home, because of COVID. We are actually happy about this, because there is less driving on treacherous roads, but also because we were wary of the danger to begin with. The covid has walked into both the high school and the lower school now, and I'm sure our kids are just like any who don't keep their distance much, being kids and all. They were invited to be at the school, being special ed and somewhat at risk, but now, everyone's gone home. And it's just as well. Better to lose a month or two of education, than lose a parent or a pair of them.

I know not everyone feels that way. It's a touchy subject and I don't bring it up much. People who have lived in the mountains all their lives somehow feel that your average flu just doesn't make it up here - and, your average flu probably doesn't. We'll see if this one does. My hunch is, it made it up here, and it made it in spades.

I'm thinking of changing this to Sixteen Springs Journal. There's another one, as you may know, that is Cloudcroft Journal. My original intention was to make one of them a media site. But let's face it, I'm not up to the pressures of a local media site. I like journalling - and I have things to say about both this valley and our town - but I'm not really a journalist anymore. Too much going on. Stay tuned and see where this thing goes.

Everyone home, less traffic, stay out of the hospitals, do your best to carry on. What else can we do? Vaccine's coming, even if it takes a few months.