Snow Day in the Village

Speaker 1 Get more, nothing much happens, with bonus episodes, extra long stories, and ad-free listening, all while supporting the show you love. Subscribe now.

Speaker 2 This episode is brought to you by Progressive Commercial Insurance. Business owners meet Progressive Insurance.

Speaker 2 They make it easy to get discounts on commercial auto insurance and find coverages to grow with your business. Quote in as little as eight minutes at progressivecommercial.com.

Speaker 2 Progressive Casualty Insurance Company, coverage provided and serviced by affiliated and third-party insurers. Discounts and covered selections not available in all states or situations.

Speaker 1 The holidays can be a lot, can't they?

Speaker 1 For business owners especially, this time of year can go from cozy to chaotic fast.

Speaker 1 I remember my first holiday rush. I was so worried something would break.
The website, the checkout, my own brain.

Speaker 1 But that's when I learned what a difference the right tools can make. Shopify is the commerce platform behind millions of businesses around the world.
About 10% of all e-commerce in the U.S.

Speaker 1 Whether you're just opening your virtual doors or you're running a full-blown store, Shopify helps you take the holidays from chaos to cha-ching.

Speaker 1 There are thousands of templates and tools to make your site beautiful and functional.

Speaker 1 AI tools to help write product descriptions and headlines, and built-in marketing support so your voice doesn't get lost in the noise.

Speaker 1 Plus, you can relax knowing Shopify's award-winning customer service is there 24/7 if anything comes up. So make this Black Friday one to remember.

Speaker 1 Sign up for your free trial today at shopify.com/slash nothing much.

Speaker 1 That's shopify.com/slash nothing much.

Speaker 1 welcome

Speaker 1 to bedtime stories for everyone

Speaker 1 in which

Speaker 1 nothing much happens

Speaker 1 you feel good

Speaker 1 and then you fall asleep

Speaker 1 i'm catherine nikolai

Speaker 1 i read and write all the stories you hear on nothing much happens

Speaker 1 with audio engineering by Bob Witterheim

Speaker 1 We give to a different charity each week. And this week we are giving to Veganuary,

Speaker 1 working to encourage people worldwide to try vegan for January and beyond. Learn more in our show notes.

Speaker 1 Let's take care of our housekeeping while you brush your teeth. Shows like ours need a couple of things to continue.
And one is ads.

Speaker 1 And I know no one likes listening, but just by letting them play in a couple of minutes, you'll be supporting our show.

Speaker 1 We only have ads read in my own voice to make them as least disturbing as possible.

Speaker 1 If you ever hear an ad Read by someone else, please know it's a mistake. Sometimes mistakes get made along the way.
Just let us know if you've heard one and we will fix it as soon as we can.

Speaker 1 The other thing we need to stay alive is premium subscribers. And if you do that, you'll get our entire catalog.

Speaker 1 Ad-free with bonus and supersized episodes, all for about a dime a day.

Speaker 1 Learn more at the link in our show notes.

Speaker 1 Now,

Speaker 1 just by listening to the story I'm about to tell you, we will shift your brain activity from default mode,

Speaker 1 where it can wander endlessly, to task positive mode, where sleep is accessible.

Speaker 1 So just follow the sound of my voice.

Speaker 1 I'll tell the story twice,

Speaker 1 and I'll go a little slower the second time through.

Speaker 1 If you wake later in the night, sometimes just thinking through the title will put you back to sleep. If not, turn an episode back on.

Speaker 1 This is habit building and your body's responses will improve with time.

Speaker 1 Our story tonight is called Snow Day. in the village and it follows up on the recent storm that blew through the Village of Nothing Much.

Speaker 1 It's about checking on neighbors as the drifts pile up.

Speaker 1 Shovels and thick socks. It's also about banana bread, puppy paw prints in the snow, books and blankets, and small acts that connect and protect us.

Speaker 1 In the Village of Nothing Much, I'm sure they never have to worry about their tap water. Unfortunately, like all of you, I live in the real world, and I don't always trust what comes out of my tap.

Speaker 1 That's why I use Aqua True Purifiers. They use a four-stage reverse osmosis purification process, and their countertop purifiers work with no installation or plumbing.

Speaker 1 It removes 15 times more contaminants than ordinary pitcher filters and are specifically designed to combat chemicals like PFAS in your water supply. The filters are affordable and long-lasting.

Speaker 1 I love this part. My old filter had to be changed every month and I forgot all the time.
But AquaTrue filters last from six months to two years.

Speaker 1 Just one set of filters from their classic purifier makes the equivalent of 4,500 bottles of water. That's less than 3 cents a bottle.
Plus, you'll save the environment from tons of plastic waste.

Speaker 1 And the water tastes really good. I don't worry about PFAS or harmful contaminants anymore.
Today, my listeners receive 20% off any Aquatrue Purifier. Just go to aquatrue.com.

Speaker 1 That's A-Q-U-A-T-R-U dot com

Speaker 1 and enter code nothing much at checkout. That's 20% off any Aquatrue water purifier.
When you go to aquatrue.com and use promo code N-O-T-H-I-N-G-M-U-C-H.

Speaker 1 Now,

Speaker 1 lights out, campers.

Speaker 1 Snuggle down and get as comfortable as you can.

Speaker 1 Take a second to scan through your body, temples to toes,

Speaker 1 and consciously relax as you go.

Speaker 1 Take a deep breath in through your nose

Speaker 1 and sigh.

Speaker 1 Nice.

Speaker 1 One more breathe in

Speaker 1 and out.

Speaker 1 Good.

Speaker 1 Snow Day in the village.

Speaker 1 The storm had been as fierce and thorough as they'd predicted.

Speaker 1 For two days the wind had blown,

Speaker 1 and a steady downfall of flakes had blanketed the village.

Speaker 1 Snow was heaped over sidewalks,

Speaker 1 blown into sloping mounds at doors,

Speaker 1 and standing in thick, unbroken swathes on park benches and bird baths.

Speaker 1 Today,

Speaker 1 while not yet sunny, per se,

Speaker 1 was brighter.

Speaker 1 The thick gray clouds that had brought the storm had blown over,

Speaker 1 and wispy white ones replaced them.

Speaker 1 I spied them from the window seat

Speaker 1 at the end of the upstairs hall in my house,

Speaker 1 and thought they looked a bit like the thready, woolly yarn of my scarf.

Speaker 1 As I peered out, my neighbor's back door opened,

Speaker 1 and a small band of boys and dogs came barreling into the snow.

Speaker 1 I leaned closer to the pane, my breath fogging up the glass.

Speaker 1 There hadn't been much entertainment in the last few days,

Speaker 1 but watching their little family

Speaker 1 had given me lots of laughs.

Speaker 1 They had gotten a new puppy a week or two ago

Speaker 1 and their two sons,

Speaker 1 along with their grown retriever Clover,

Speaker 1 had been making the most of the days off,

Speaker 1 while many of us had just let the snow pile up,

Speaker 1 waiting to clear paths and sidewalks till Mother Nature was finished with her decorating.

Speaker 1 The boys had been out every hour or two with their shovels,

Speaker 1 making paths for the dogs.

Speaker 1 I imagined the promises they had made about that puppy,

Speaker 1 that they would walk him every day,

Speaker 1 that they would be sure to let him out and play with him.

Speaker 1 And so far, they were doing just that.

Speaker 1 well not walking him really

Speaker 1 it was too cold

Speaker 1 and the pup too young for walks

Speaker 1 but they romped in the snow with him

Speaker 1 through balls which disappeared into snow banks

Speaker 1 and kept the path from the door shoveled and clear.

Speaker 1 I'd baked some biscuits for the the dogs

Speaker 1 and some banana bread for the boys and their dads.

Speaker 1 One of the many snowed-in projects I'd undertaken in the last day or two.

Speaker 1 And once my own sidewalk was shoveled,

Speaker 1 I'd sneak over to their house to visit.

Speaker 1 I smiled to myself,

Speaker 1 thinking about the wild puppy kisses I'd be gifted,

Speaker 1 and the happy, excited energy of their household.

Speaker 1 I shuffled down the long hall,

Speaker 1 a sweater around my shoulders

Speaker 1 and thick socks on my feet.

Speaker 1 While the snow had finished falling, the temperature hadn't,

Speaker 1 and my old house had chilly, drafty spots that I dodged in the winter.

Speaker 1 It also had cosy, warmer corners, and I stepped into one at the top of the stairs.

Speaker 1 Here another window let me look out at the winter wonderland around me.

Speaker 1 This time out to the street, where a few neighbors were beginning to dig out from the snow.

Speaker 1 One was standing, her hands on her hips, knee-deep in the stuff,

Speaker 1 with a discarded shovel tossed down beside her.

Speaker 1 She was waving at another neighbor, a few houses down,

Speaker 1 who had a massive snowblower fired up.

Speaker 1 I smiled when I saw him.

Speaker 1 He would be our collective hero today,

Speaker 1 I had no doubt.

Speaker 1 He loved that snowblower.

Speaker 1 And he was the type of guy that thrilled at a task like the one now set before him.

Speaker 1 He often did everyone's sidewalks and driveways

Speaker 1 and was known on the block as the person to go to when you needed to borrow a tool or get some advice,

Speaker 1 possibly too much advice on fence repair or gutter cleaning.

Speaker 1 He taught history at the high school,

Speaker 1 and his penchant for the ancient world led him to dub his beloved snowblower Clear Opathra.

Speaker 1 He looked up from the slow, clear path he was now making and spotted the waving neighbor.

Speaker 1 He lifted an arm above his head, a thumbs up signaling he understood the assignment,

Speaker 1 and went right back to focusing on the snow.

Speaker 1 The waving neighbor clapped her hands happily,

Speaker 1 reached for her discarded shovel, and began trudging back to her her garage.

Speaker 1 Having neighbors who take care of each other, who look out for each other,

Speaker 1 it is no small thing in this world.

Speaker 1 And even on this cold day,

Speaker 1 as I descended the stairs, I felt it warming me through.

Speaker 1 And it made me think,

Speaker 1 if shoveling was no longer on my chore list,

Speaker 1 how else might I be helpful to my neighbors?

Speaker 1 In the kitchen, as I packed up the treats for the boys next door,

Speaker 1 I thought that while our block was checking in on one another,

Speaker 1 there were folks who lived further out who might need a call.

Speaker 1 I picked up the phone and dialed the inn out on the lake.

Speaker 1 As I listened to it ring, I imagined the innkeeper racing through the halls to reach it in the front office where guests checked in.

Speaker 1 And in fact, when she answered,

Speaker 1 She was a bit out of breath, but laughing and happy to hear from a friend.

Speaker 1 She confirmed that they had plenty of firewood,

Speaker 1 that she and her cat sycamore were camping out in the library in front of the fire,

Speaker 1 looking through old photo albums and books, and eating their way through the well-stocked kitchen pantry.

Speaker 1 They didn't have any guests right now.

Speaker 1 Chef was away, working at a ski resort for most of the winter,

Speaker 1 but they had called to check in as well.

Speaker 1 The snowplow was expected today

Speaker 1 to clear their long drive. And even once it had,

Speaker 1 she didn't anticipate leaving the inn for a few more days.

Speaker 1 Next, I called a friend who lived in an apartment in downtown.

Speaker 1 He worked at the bakery, and I realized I had no idea if anything was even open on Main Street.

Speaker 1 He told me that as far as he could see from his window, nearly everything was closed.

Speaker 1 He'd gone out just once, at the urging of the baker herself,

Speaker 1 to help himself to any of the cookies or loaves of bread still on their shelves

Speaker 1 and since then had just been eating sandwiches and reading books

Speaker 1 while wrapped up in blankets in his favorite chair

Speaker 1 he thought today would be the last day

Speaker 1 of his snowcation

Speaker 1 that the roads and sidewalks would be clear tomorrow

Speaker 1 and that the rest had been lovely.

Speaker 1 But he was excited to make bagels in the morning.

Speaker 1 Finally, I called a friend who lived in an old farmhouse in the countryside out of town.

Speaker 1 I'd met her when I'd stopped to pick some lilacs from the bushes that ran along the front of her property,

Speaker 1 where she'd posted signs encouraging folks to take as many blooms as they liked.

Speaker 1 She'd been fixing the house up for the last few years,

Speaker 1 and I wondered if, like my own old house, it would be drafty in the winter.

Speaker 1 She told me it was actually quite snug,

Speaker 1 that her boiler was working perfectly,

Speaker 1 and that she'd even cracked a window in in the kitchen this morning because it might be working too well.

Speaker 1 She said she'd been out to feed the birds and that the forest was full of their calls and songs.

Speaker 1 When we hung up and I began to bundle into my boots and coat to go next door,

Speaker 1 I thought of how sweet it was to be connected

Speaker 1 here on my street

Speaker 1 through banana bread and snow blowers,

Speaker 1 but also to those farther away

Speaker 1 through a thought or a word

Speaker 1 that all of it wove together and warmed me like a quilt

Speaker 1 on this icy winter day.

Speaker 1 Snow day

Speaker 1 in the village.

Speaker 1 The storm had been as fierce and thorough as they'd predicted.

Speaker 1 For two days, the wind had blown,

Speaker 1 and a steady downfall of flakes

Speaker 1 had blanketed the village.

Speaker 1 Snow was heaped over sidewalks,

Speaker 1 blown into sloping mounds at doors

Speaker 1 and standing in thick, unbroken swathes

Speaker 1 on park benches and bird baths.

Speaker 1 Today,

Speaker 1 while

Speaker 1 not sunny per se,

Speaker 1 was brighter

Speaker 1 the thick gray clouds that had brought the storm

Speaker 1 had blown over

Speaker 1 and wispy white ones replaced them

Speaker 1 I spied them from the window seat

Speaker 1 at the end of the upstairs hall in my house,

Speaker 1 and thought they looked a bit like the thready,

Speaker 1 woolly yarn of my scarf.

Speaker 1 As I peered out,

Speaker 1 my neighbor's back door opened.

Speaker 1 And a small band of boys and dogs came barreling into the snow.

Speaker 1 I leaned closer to the pane,

Speaker 1 my breath fogging up the glass.

Speaker 1 There hadn't been much entertainment

Speaker 1 in the last few days.

Speaker 1 But watching their little family

Speaker 1 had given me lots of laughs.

Speaker 1 They had gotten a new puppy

Speaker 1 a week or two ago

Speaker 1 and their two sons,

Speaker 1 along with their grown retriever, Clover,

Speaker 1 had been making the most

Speaker 1 of the days off.

Speaker 1 While many of us

Speaker 1 had just let the snow pile up,

Speaker 1 waiting to clear paths and sidewalks

Speaker 1 till Mother Nature was finished with her decorating.

Speaker 1 The boys had been out

Speaker 1 every hour or two

Speaker 1 with their shovels,

Speaker 1 making paths for the dogs.

Speaker 1 I imagined the promises they had made about that puppy

Speaker 1 that they would walk him every day,

Speaker 1 that they would be sure to let him out

Speaker 1 and play with him.

Speaker 1 And so far they were doing just that.

Speaker 1 Well, not walking him, really.

Speaker 1 It was too cold,

Speaker 1 and the pup too young for walks.

Speaker 1 But they romped in the snow with him,

Speaker 1 threw balls which disappeared into snow banks,

Speaker 1 and kept the path from the door, shoveled and clear.

Speaker 1 I'd baked some biscuits

Speaker 1 for the dogs and some banana bread

Speaker 1 for the boys and their dads.

Speaker 1 One of the many snowed-in projects

Speaker 1 I'd undertaken in the last day or two.

Speaker 1 And once my own sidewalk was shoveled,

Speaker 1 I'd sneak over to their house to visit.

Speaker 1 I smiled to myself,

Speaker 1 thinking about the wild puppy kisses I'd be gifted

Speaker 1 and the happy, excited energy of their household.

Speaker 1 I shuffled down the long hall,

Speaker 1 a sweater around my shoulders, and thick socks on my feet.

Speaker 1 While the snow had finished falling, the temperature hadn't.

Speaker 1 And my old house had chilly, drafty spots that I dodged in the winter.

Speaker 1 It also had cozy, warmer corners,

Speaker 1 and I stepped into one at the top of the stairs

Speaker 1 here another window

Speaker 1 let me look out at the winter wonderland around me

Speaker 1 this time

Speaker 1 out to the street

Speaker 1 where a few neighbors were beginning to dig out from the snow

Speaker 1 One was standing,

Speaker 1 her hands on her hips,

Speaker 1 knee-deep in the stuff,

Speaker 1 with a discarded shovel tossed down beside her.

Speaker 1 She was waving at another neighbor a few houses down,

Speaker 1 who had a massive snow snowblower fired up.

Speaker 1 I smiled when I saw him.

Speaker 1 He would be

Speaker 1 our collective hero today.

Speaker 1 I had no doubt.

Speaker 1 He loved that snowblower.

Speaker 1 And

Speaker 1 he was the type of guy

Speaker 1 that thrilled at a task like the one now set before him.

Speaker 1 He often did everyone's sidewalks and driveways

Speaker 1 and was known on the block

Speaker 1 as the person to go to when you needed to borrow a tool

Speaker 1 or

Speaker 1 get some advice,

Speaker 1 possibly too much advice

Speaker 1 on fence repair

Speaker 1 or gutter cleaning.

Speaker 1 He taught history at the high school

Speaker 1 and his penchant for the ancient world

Speaker 1 led him to dub

Speaker 1 his beloved snowblower

Speaker 1 clear opatra.

Speaker 1 He looked up from the slow, clear path

Speaker 1 he was now making

Speaker 1 and spotted the waving neighbor.

Speaker 1 He lifted an arm above his head,

Speaker 1 a thumbs up,

Speaker 1 signaling he understood the assignment

Speaker 1 and went right back to focusing on the snow.

Speaker 1 The waving neighbor

Speaker 1 clapped her hands happily,

Speaker 1 reached for her discarded shovel,

Speaker 1 and began trudging back to her garage.

Speaker 1 Having neighbors

Speaker 1 who take care of each other,

Speaker 1 who look out for each other.

Speaker 1 It is no small thing

Speaker 1 in this world.

Speaker 1 And even on this cold day,

Speaker 1 as I descended the stairs,

Speaker 1 I felt it warming me through.

Speaker 1 And it made me think,

Speaker 1 if shoveling was no longer on my chore list

Speaker 1 how else might I be helpful

Speaker 1 to my neighbors

Speaker 1 in the kitchen as I packed up the treats for the boys next door

Speaker 1 I thought that While our block

Speaker 1 was checking in on one another,

Speaker 1 there were folks who lived further out

Speaker 1 who might need a call.

Speaker 1 I picked up the phone

Speaker 1 and dialed the inn on the lake.

Speaker 1 As I listened to it ring,

Speaker 1 I imagined the innkeeper

Speaker 1 racing through the halls

Speaker 1 to reach it in the front office where guests checked in.

Speaker 1 And, in fact,

Speaker 1 when she answered,

Speaker 1 she was a bit out of breath,

Speaker 1 but laughing and happy to hear from a friend.

Speaker 1 She confirmed that they had plenty of firewood,

Speaker 1 that she and her cat Sycamore

Speaker 1 were camping out in the library in front of the fire,

Speaker 1 looking through old photo albums and books,

Speaker 1 and eating their way through the well-stocked kitchen pantry.

Speaker 1 They didn't have any guests right now.

Speaker 1 Chef was away

Speaker 1 working at a ski resort for most of the winter.

Speaker 1 But they had called to check in, as I had.

Speaker 1 The snowplow

Speaker 1 was expected to day

Speaker 1 to clear their long drive

Speaker 1 and even once it had,

Speaker 1 she didn't anticipate leaving the inn

Speaker 1 for a few more days.

Speaker 1 Next, I called a friend who lived in an apartment in downtown.

Speaker 1 He worked at the bakery.

Speaker 1 And I realized

Speaker 1 I had no idea if anything was even open

Speaker 1 on Main Street.

Speaker 1 He told me that

Speaker 1 as far as he could see from his window,

Speaker 1 nearly everything

Speaker 1 was closed.

Speaker 1 He'd gone out

Speaker 1 just once,

Speaker 1 at the urging of the baker herself

Speaker 1 to help himself to any of the cookies or loaves of bread

Speaker 1 still on their shelves

Speaker 1 and since then

Speaker 1 had

Speaker 1 just been eating sandwiches and reading books

Speaker 1 while wrapped up in blankets in his favorite chair.

Speaker 1 He thought today

Speaker 1 would be the last day of his snowcation.

Speaker 1 That the roads and sidewalks would be clear tomorrow.

Speaker 1 That the rest had been lovely,

Speaker 1 but he was excited

Speaker 1 to make bagels in the morning.

Speaker 1 Finally, I called a friend

Speaker 1 who lived in an old farmhouse

Speaker 1 in the countryside out of town.

Speaker 1 I'd met her when I'd stopped to pick some lilacs

Speaker 1 from the bushes

Speaker 1 that ran along the front of her property

Speaker 1 where she'd posted signs encouraging folks to take as many blooms as they liked.

Speaker 1 She'd been fixing up her house for the last few years,

Speaker 1 and I wondered if,

Speaker 1 like my own old house,

Speaker 1 it could be drafty in the winter.

Speaker 1 She told me it was actually quite snug,

Speaker 1 that her boiler was working perfectly,

Speaker 1 and that she'd cracked a window in the kitchen this morning

Speaker 1 because it might be working too well.

Speaker 1 She said she'd been out to feed the birds,

Speaker 1 and that the forest was full of their calls and songs.

Speaker 1 When we hung up,

Speaker 1 I began to bundle into my boots and coat

Speaker 1 to go next door.

Speaker 1 I thought of how sweet it was

Speaker 1 to be connected

Speaker 1 here on my street

Speaker 1 through banana bread and snow blowers

Speaker 1 but also to those further away

Speaker 1 through a thought or a word

Speaker 1 that all of it wove together

Speaker 1 and warmed me like a quilt

Speaker 1 on this icy winter day.

Speaker 1 Sweet dreams.