Well, living in New England means having to be ready to find places for snow when it drops. Not only is my home a blivet (trying to get 2# doo doo into a 1# bag) but now Nature has decided to wish the same on us in the yard and driveway. Snow is beautiful on a greeting card or ski slope, but not as attractive when it has to be shoveled off cars and parking areas.
This isn't horrible, but imagine what it will look like in two days when the second storm strikes. Imagine also, that when you scrape it off your car, unless you move your car elsewhere (if you can) it will land on the ground and need a second shoveling.
People had to drive many extra hours to get home yesterday as the roads were gridlocked in many places. Cars were running out of gas, skidding, fender benders occured, and all the other things that can happen on the road to people who didn't believe a storm was coming, didn't fill their tanks with gas, and didn't have tires with enough tread to drive safely in the icy conditions helped with road congestion and bumper to bumper driving.
Nursery school teachers had to wait hours for parents to be able to come fetch their toddlers. Older kids were let out early from school and beat their parents home by many hours. I wonder how many Christmas gifts were unwrapped and re-wrapped like my kids used to do. Appointments were missed, loved ones worried, and almost everyone on the road had a cell phone to their ear.
Nature also has its problems. This squirrel had a house full of snow as he looked down from above at what had been a nice warm bed just a few hours ago. With the snow cap concealing it, he might even have been wondering where his home had gone!
I've decided living with someone may not be so bad, after all, when that someone spent hours moving snow so that I could stay indoors and be warm. I'm learning that getting old is not ALL bad!
It is still easy to recall that once I liked cross country skiing. Even much earlier than that, I liked tunneling in the snow and making snow houses! Now I just look forward to watching it while it is pretty for, maybe, five minutes before all the exhaust from cars and buses turns it black. When neighbors walk their pets, the black is intermingled with yellow. It too quickly loses that picture postcard simplicity and beauty... at least in the urban or suburban areas.
I gaze outside and try to forget that all the work that was done will have to be done again in a day or two when the second (and predicted to be worse) storm hits. Perhaps, since it will be a Sunday, people will be forewarned and stay off the roads. Kids will pray for it to be deep so that schools will be closed and parents will pray for the schools to be open so their darlings will be elsewhere than hanging off the chandeliers at home.
Whatever happens, we can welcome the livet puzzle once again as new spots to get rid of snow from the walk paths and driveway are figured out. All of this will shorten the remaining amount of time to prepare for Christmas which probably was not on the calendar for most people.
This isn't horrible, but imagine what it will look like in two days when the second storm strikes. Imagine also, that when you scrape it off your car, unless you move your car elsewhere (if you can) it will land on the ground and need a second shoveling. People had to drive many extra hours to get home yesterday as the roads were gridlocked in many places. Cars were running out of gas, skidding, fender benders occured, and all the other things that can happen on the road to people who didn't believe a storm was coming, didn't fill their tanks with gas, and didn't have tires with enough tread to drive safely in the icy conditions helped with road congestion and bumper to bumper driving.
Nursery school teachers had to wait hours for parents to be able to come fetch their toddlers. Older kids were let out early from school and beat their parents home by many hours. I wonder how many Christmas gifts were unwrapped and re-wrapped like my kids used to do. Appointments were missed, loved ones worried, and almost everyone on the road had a cell phone to their ear.
Nature also has its problems. This squirrel had a house full of snow as he looked down from above at what had been a nice warm bed just a few hours ago. With the snow cap concealing it, he might even have been wondering where his home had gone!I've decided living with someone may not be so bad, after all, when that someone spent hours moving snow so that I could stay indoors and be warm. I'm learning that getting old is not ALL bad!
It is still easy to recall that once I liked cross country skiing. Even much earlier than that, I liked tunneling in the snow and making snow houses! Now I just look forward to watching it while it is pretty for, maybe, five minutes before all the exhaust from cars and buses turns it black. When neighbors walk their pets, the black is intermingled with yellow. It too quickly loses that picture postcard simplicity and beauty... at least in the urban or suburban areas.
I gaze outside and try to forget that all the work that was done will have to be done again in a day or two when the second (and predicted to be worse) storm hits. Perhaps, since it will be a Sunday, people will be forewarned and stay off the roads. Kids will pray for it to be deep so that schools will be closed and parents will pray for the schools to be open so their darlings will be elsewhere than hanging off the chandeliers at home.
Whatever happens, we can welcome the livet puzzle once again as new spots to get rid of snow from the walk paths and driveway are figured out. All of this will shorten the remaining amount of time to prepare for Christmas which probably was not on the calendar for most people.
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