Good Snow, Bad Snow

"Think we might be going to have a mild winter" we said, right before Christmas 2009. The temperatures had been mild for our area, and we really had not gotten any snow to speak of. Then Christmas Eve came, and it started to snow. The Holiday season was very festive with the new fallen snow, and a beautiful white blanket covered the dirt, and ugliness that Fall had left behind. Christmas lights twinkled in the whiteness, and people got out their snow blowers, shovels, sleds and skis. The local ski resorts were delighted to have a very successful kick-off to their winter fun season, and the mountains and fields looked like a Currier and Ives painting.

Almost two months have passed, and the snow is still here. In the past two weeks, we have had over three feet of new snow, and our schools have been closed, it seems, forever. The Holidays are over, but remnants of decorations are still up as it has been too cold or snowy to take them down. Towns and munitipalities are out of salt for the roads, and their budgets are spent paying overtime for plowing snow and clearing roads.

Parents are stressed about what to do with their children since school has been cancelled so often, or their daycare is closed. Driving to work on icy, snow-covered roads has brought about heaps of accidents. There were two fifty-car pileups last week, and another one today on the Interstates. Lots of the local grocery stores are out of bread, milk and of course toilet paper! The TV screen has a constant banner of cancellations across the bottom, and the winter weather advisory, beeping on the TV, alerts us at least once every few days to a new winter storm. There isn't a snow shovel to be found in our whole area, and salt is at a premium, if you can find it at all.

We have a living fence of about fifty-five hemlock trees around the back of our property that are laying down on the ground under the weight of all the snow. We are wondering if they will ever stand tall again. Fallen power lines, causing electrical outages, are a common occurence. So, keeping fresh batteries in the flashlights is a must. Have we mentioned the delays at the airports, bus terminals and train stations? Travel almost anywhere is a long, slow process.

A few weeks ago, the groundhog did predict six more weeks of winter, and he must have been on the mark this year. Someone sent us an e-mail recently showing a picture of a snowman with a noose around his neck...we thought it was pretty appropriate.

Memories of that beautiful first snowfall of so long ago on Christmas Eve have now been replaced by the words "OMG IS IT SNOWING AGAIN, YOU'VE GOT TO BE KIDDING!!"

P.S. Does anyone out there have an extra snow shovel???