Make the Most of Your Snowpocalypse

I think this is the third time in a week that my Governor has declared a State of Emergency.  Not since the Jamaican bobsled team have I felt that anybody was this ill prepared for winter.  It's a lot easier for me to joke around about all the snow/sleet/ice we received, since I never lost power at my house.  We were very fortunate.  Other people in my neighborhood were unable to make French Toast with all of the bread, milk and eggs they bought at the store before the storm.  I made brownies.

It occurred to me that there are people who like snow.  It's a novelty for some of them down here, since they're natives.  For us (damned) Yankees, it's something we tried to leave behind when we moved here.  We chose to live in a state where we can go to a dozen stores and not find a sled or a snow shovel.  My claim to have once seen a snowplow is sometimes challenged as if I had said the Loch Ness Monster pulled me around on water skis.  It's easy to romanticize something and look forward to it with childlike glee if it's rare.  If most of your winter childhood memories involved stocking the cellar with wood, hours of shoveling and wearing bread bags on your feet (to keep feet dry inside wet boots, of course), then watching snow fly in the south probably makes you apoplectic.

Romantic:  Look how the sun sparkles from the dusting of snowflakes in my Love's hair!  Has she ever been so beautiful?

Cynic:  The snow's melting, and cold water is running down the back of my neck.  It somehow trickled all the way down to my butt crack, and it's still freezing!

Romantic:  The trees look like a Christmas card, all covered in powdery white!

Cynic:  Branches snapped and fell on power lines, causing thousands of people to suffer without light or heat for most of the day.  A limb crushed my fence!

Romantic:  The snow blankets the earth, as though she sleeps, only to burst forth in verdant splendor come Spring!

Cynic:  When this crap melts, my lawn will turn into a sloppy mess for a week.

I have to admit, that the light dusting of snow we normally get down here is fun to watch.  It rarely accumulates or causes problems.  I sometimes manage to clear my whole driveway with only a broom.  Even what frozen precipitation we've received over the past few days pales in comparison to what people up north have dealt with this year.  So, lest you think I'm needlessly complaining, I do feel lucky to experience these snow storms so rarely.  Besides, tornado season starts next week!