Trapped in a Snow Globe

My Iowa homies are gonna love this. It is snowing in Alabama, an epic tempest, the nastiest blizzard here ever.  Yep EVER.  Nine inches of heavy powder has turned our cozy dream maker into a frozen iceberg stuck to a concrete slab as icicles freeze, temperature drops fifty degrees below what should have been a tropical paradise.  Interstate 10 closed for 200 miles, three inches of black ice created a jammed parking lot from Alabama across the entire Panhandle.  The perfect destination for a couple of savvy Midwesterners escaping blustery Iowa for sunshine and clear blue skies, steering the RV directly into the eye of The Perfect Storm in the Gulf of Mexico. “The Shining” seems a fairy tale in comparison, claustrophobia fills our snug bungalow as we are buried inside a howling snow globe, stranded as a complete whiteout swirls then drifts blocking our only escape. Schools, banks, churches, hair barns, four long days without a Walmart greeter, the entire city shut down, locals building snow castles on the beach.  A brief reprieve opened our favorite brewery, three hours of pure bliss then tears shed by tipsy patrons as the CLOSED sign swung and the lights dimmed.  I miss you Iowa.

Fort Morgan surreal, haunting, standing on the actual beach in Mobile Bay where over two hundred years ago our courageous US Army faced British warships blasting cannons, black smoke billowing, sails ablaze, intense flames forcing sailors overboard into a sea swarming with shrapnel, fuel, fire, sharks, bodies.  Today few traces of the horror endured by those brave warriors remain, only oil rigs mark the horizon where fearless patriots forever haunt the deep blue seas.  A thoughtful survivor sent heartfelt sympathies to the wife of a fallen comrade describing in vivid detail the poor soul’s final moments, “I saw the explosion and all jump, one fell, but at the moment could not make it out who it was….although I could tell he was dead.  I immediately went over and found that his head had been entirely severed from his body and scattered some distance, one side badly bruised and one arm broken…” Not sure a full graphic account of the nightmare describing her husband's gory demise soothed the grieving widow, but the soldier consoled her with these gentle words “he was the dearest and best friend on earth to me, but there is another and better world, where we all may meet."

A wimpy blizzard?   A walk in the park.  War is hell.