i find myself guilty of falsely campaigning for a character i only casually knew. i’ve been lobbying for the hero-of-horsecreek title for quite a while. over a year…perhaps two…

every once-in-a-bit, Box would give it to me. he’d tell me that i was a brilliant genius and the hero-of-horsecreek. but Crit never has. i am not the hero that DW is. In her eyes, he’s the one TRUE HoHC. whatevs.

so a couple of weeks ago, i stomped my foot down and declared that i was, in fact, the one TRUE HoHC! I made it so because i typed it one night after bed. on my blog. that 27 people i know, and 2 i don’t, get emailed to them. it’s a real bizarre thing, really.

and i let her shine in all her glory. this is a winter for the memory books. this is beyond description. i am now hoisting the shovel full of snow, over my shoulder, with a running start, up and out as far as i can. its like an alpine shot-put, javellin event, in 4 degrees.

today i moved 15, 40 pound bags of pellets from outside to inside. twice per day, i carry a bag and dump it into the pellet stove. 7 times per day, i open the pellet stove door and scrape all the ash out of all the spaces. because i learned the hard way, it is the only way to avoid pellet stove malfunction and disaster.

today, i spent close to 3 hours plowing our driveway. with the homies, of course.

i took some photos along the driveway the past few days. some from skis, some from the plow truck. our driveway is 5.5 miles long. from that point, on most occasions, the road is plowed the rest of the way to town. it’s like all the years i rode my bike with one on the front and the other in the chariot. you just can’t take a photo of it when you’re in it. i’m doing it all by myself, so the photos kind of suck. or at least they don’t actually capture what this is like. this is like alien planet stuff out here.

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so…turns out, Hero of Horse Creek is a fickle half-hero after all. turns out, she needs to retreat to her fortress of solitude to recharge and refresh until the next mission beckons her…she is not down with the long-haul.

so….La Madre and Hardscrabble teamed back up to get through to St. Patrick’s Day (that’s what they shook on at least). Hero of Horsecreek will swoop down when only she’s ready…and poor ‘ol Ultra Violet is down for the count. hope to reconnect with her in the desert in April. she’s sure to be revived then.

just as predicted….the next morning after the last post, i returned to the attitude-of-gratitude. i shoveled and i skied. and i inhaled the strength and i exhaled the surrender. i am finding balance. i love to make things harder than they need to be. it is a pattern i’ve had my entire life. its what keeps me growing.

turns out…only Super Heros are afforded Fortresses of Solitude. Ordinary Heros can’t afford the luxury.