Annmarie Throckmorton, M.A.
- Mar 4, 2023

Comfortably Snowed In

I'm reading my morning eNews, it takes about an hour since I get daily eNews from local sources, America, Europe, and some science sources. I hope the internet hold up. Electrical outages have been predicted across the country, although there is no particular reason for it, no ice and no more snow than is to be expected for March which as the proverb says, "...comes in like a lion, goes out like a lamb."

The house is toasty warm with no wind to ruffle the blanket of insulating snow on the roof. I am prepared to enjoy being snowed in today, but there will be no model train show for me. It was scheduled to be held at the Augusta Armory located just on the other side of the snowy mountain upon which I live. Although it seems to me that half a foot of snow in the night should not be a show-stopper in the civilized world. No?

I have my good memories of model trains to share here. All of my childhood I watched my father hand-build his many O-gauge model train locomotives, freight cars, passenger cars, and cabooses (caboosi? :-). Each train that he built was an exact replica of running railroad stock, current or historical. Then when I was grown I created train layout scenery for him on the wooden train layout which he had built in sections over the years until it filled an entire room in the basement. That was such fun, so satisfying to build a tiny world of landscape, mountains, tunnels, and waterways for my father's hobby layout. Father built his train stations from kits, painted them and populated them with tiny, tiny plastic people, including a station master, the latter as his alter ego? Father was a research chemist which is serious, dangerous, sometimes unpleasant work that requires constant concentration, but his train hobby was a pleasantly complex and absorbing relaxation for him. Father read train hobbyist magazines, he had friends who shared this interest with him, and he took the whole family on steam locomotive train excursions, such fun! I learned to play from my father.

On Saturdays I try to accomplish a major household chore which today is a pragmatic hour deep-cleaning the kitchen counter (involving moving the small appliances and canisters); and I need to check behind the stove to see if I can figure out why it stopped working. I have it in mind to call in a work order for it on Monday, or whenever the snow clears and the repair or replacement as needed can be more readily accomplished.

This afternoon I will begin my transition to A Peaceable Sunday, I actually have 1 ½ days of real relaxation each week. This for me, at this point in my life, no longer means hiking in nature or creating large works of art, it means reading, writing, studying, smaller artwork, a movie, prayer, and church when I find the right one for me.

I am grateful for my retirement, with blessings on each day and every day.

Annmarie Throckmorton creating scenery for Father’s train layout,1990 — 1 & 2