Ensamhet and The Prisoner

The Flatirons are barely visible this morning through the fog, mist, and very low cloud cover. It started to rain and snow about 4 yesterday afternoon, and while the Denver airport received a measurable two inches of snow, all that arrived here melted almost instantaneously when it touched the ground. There were a couple of places that I could see snow laying on top of leaves in the backyard last night, but this morning it's just wet out. It's supposed to start snowing again around 2 this afternoon, with an accumulation of 8 to 12 inches by Sunday evening. ... I really enjoyed watching the last two episodes of The Prisoner last night - IFC has been showing the episodes as a lead into the "new" Prisoner series that will begin showing on AMC on Sunday, Nov. 15th. I dearly loved Patrick McGoohan as John Drake (the Secret Agent man)and the Prisoner, and in some ways it's sort of scary that he wrote and directed the last several episodes of the original. I think he's as warped as I am! But I'm looking forward to seeing Ian McKellan as (I'm guessing here) the new Number 2. ... The beaches of the Eastern Shore are still taking a beating from what was Ida. Electrical transformers for Delmarva Power are still underwater in many places. The eastern side of Crisfield, MD and the southern portion of Ocean City, MD are under water; Smith Island has about a 2-foot flood; low-lying areas of Chincoteague and Assateague are flooded; and many coastal and bay roads are closed. Even US 13, the main north-south artery on the Eastern Shore is closed in places due to high water. ... Lovey has been in and out and talking to me all morning; I don't know where Banichi went, but he was out for 45 minutes on a stroll, and returned with little icy-cold feet. Lovey has been talking since yesterday evening - she and Banichi seemed intrigued by the music and sound effects from The Prisoner, last night. And then I followed that up with a dose of Monty Python's Flying Circus - they both seemed concerned when I laughed uproariously for several minutes. ... I've known since I was a child that I frequently needed to get away from cities and so-called civilization; these days I go walking in open spaces in and around Boulder, walk through Chautauqua, or go hiking and choose little-used paths; when I was a child I went into the woods in southeast Gainesville, and I wandered without a thought all over Assateague Island. I read last night that this is something I probably got from my Swedish grandfather - that the Swedes call it restorative ensamhet: a trip of solitude into nature, so that one can absorb the inherent forces of nature and wildlife before having to deal with a lot of people once more. That makes perfect sense to me! ... "Be seeing you!"