Chris S. Coray
The Un-muddled Mathematician
We have had visitors from the Middle East with us for the last 3
weeks. One from Syria, one from Jordan. Our dear friend, Itedal, from Syria couldn’t get over
how cold it was. She is currently living
in California where it has been warm. We
didn’t think it was very cold during her visit, which included the Cisco
Disco. She walked around in our house
wearing a blanket. But she survived and
is probably telling stories about the freezer we call home.
The second visitor (Osama) has been with us for two weeks. He is from Jordan. He has seen snow there but whatever falls is
very rare and is gone by noon. He is a
charming man who can and does talk as much as my wife Bobbie, which is pretty
much continuous unless sleeping.
However, after a couple of days in SLC we brought him to our home,
traveling up the Logan Canyon at night.
For 40 miles we saw only one car.
Osama got very quiet during the trip and I didn’t help by telling him
about the bears, mountain lions, and other creatures. To say the least, he was happy when we pulled
into our garage.
I took him out on the ice near Cisco Beach. He didn’t seem to mind it much (pay
attention, Kam and Bob) and watched Eldon and Dwayne fish through a hole and
even catch a rainbow. He did wander out
far enough that he heard the ice crack so he hustled back near the shore.
Then it began to snow. Serious
snow. He made a video on his phone so
his wife could learn how he died. The
snow got deeper. Osama shoveled my
deck. A nice job except for the
immediate drifting that followed.
We had appointments in SLC so we actually left Saturday, barely making
it off the hill. For a while the canyon
to Logan was closed but after about an hour we were able to get behind a plow
and made our way to Logan. During the
trip Osama had the rear window down, making more phone videos of the snow. He was in sort of shock. It’s a good thing we went Saturday since the
avalanche closed the canyon and it is still closed as of this writing. Now he can talk about the journey because he
lived, whereas he was stone silent during most of the driving excepting for a
few fervent Al HumdAllahs (Praise be to God) as we reached Logan. I think he will kiss the ground when he goes
home tomorrow. Nobody will believe his
story, even with the visual evidence.
You have to admit that this storm has been unusual, even preventing
skiers and snowmobilers from getting to destinations. It has been a real adventure and we have been
happy to have been part of it.
Welcome
to Bear Lake, Osama.
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