The snows have come again. Gently. And quietly. They sort of snuck in while I wasn’t looking. We’ve got another Republic open mic tonight and I’m not quite sure what kind of an effect this will have on turn out. There aren’t nearly as many people RSVPed to the event and that could be the snow, the fact that we’ve changed up the schedule, the fact that it’s no longer new… any number of things could be going on.
Still, the light’s draining out of Takoma Park and white flakes are drifting down and I’m seriously regretting not having ever loaded Diablo III onto my laptop because sometimes, even when surrounded by banjos and ukuleles and guitars and mandolins and harps and sitars – you just want to play a damned video game.
Yeah. I’m a bad person. It’s true.
Still, I rallied my will power and settled in and learned some Jimi Hendrix on 5-string banjo. And relearned Selkie. Also on 5-string banjo. I’ve got Jason Cox’s old Kay back home and I might just spend some time with that later. Banjo can be very, very, very beautiful.
Tonight’s open mic was great. The drive home was terrible. The gentle flakes quickly gathered force and became a thick blanketing snowstorm that had covered not only my Saturn but all of I-95 before I left Republic at around midnight. Though I was chagrined at having to cut the end of the night (compressing the last 30 minutes into something closer to 15) because at the time I was wondering to myself what REAL difference those 15 minutes were going to make – but by the time I was driving up the untreated, unplowed I-95 at 25 mph with slush and ice caked over MY headlights as all the overhead lights on the highway lost power – I came to realize that I was happy to get every spare minute I could get.
It took me about two hours to get home and nearly lost it twice. With no lane markings visible and darkness all around, I was carefully following tire treads and tail lights. Fortunately the rumble strips at the edge of the interstate kept me from following the car ahead of me off into the woods. I don’t think I’ve ever driven in conditions like that.
Merf. Quite a night. Glad to be home. It’s 4am and I’m wide awake. Back to the banjo!
