Snow, Glorious Snowwww......

by Jeanne Adams

Okay, apologies to Charles Dickens and the rip off of "Food, Glorious Food" from the musical Oliver, but it fits for snow so well and the tune is SO catchy! Grins.

I've been longing for a good whalloping snow for a while now. I do believe that I have desired a blizzard right into existance, so I'm thinking I need to apologize to the other 2-million-plus residents of the DC Metro area for this weekend's storm. (I'm thinking I had help though, since 900,000+ school kids are rockin' this snow storm too)

Either way, I'll say "Sorry!" (But I'm not sure I'll really MEAN it....)

You see, we've had snow this winter already, so I was already grinning and happy with the Snow Gods. We've had more this year than we've had in a decade, which has pleased me no end. I'm a snow lover. It makes me smile, it makes me happy, and I get a lot of exercise out there shoveling, making snow creatures, snow angels, and snow forts. The snowball wars...well, they're even more fun.

Some people are tropical people. They love the beach. They love the heat, they love the day they can actually don shorts without freezing their patooties off; they think summer is da bomb.

Then there are the odd ones, like me, who just adore autumn and winter. I look forward to the day it's cool enough to wear a turtleneck, sweatshirt and jeans. I mourn when it gets too hot to wear them. I love football. I think crisp autumn days and snow filled nights are a glory beyond words.

In the last decade, we've had nice fall weather, and to my disgust in the dead of winter we've had 60 degree days. Total bummer for us snow lovers. Since I've managed to have two kids and get published in the last ten years, I've not had much opportunity to leave all-too-warm-DC to go skiing. Another total bummer. Sigh. On the bright side, my kids are finally old enough that we're going to get to go do the ski thing next year. Whooooppeeeee!

Imagine my delight, then, when this year, we got SNOWWWW! In January, we got enough to go sledding on the neighbor's hill for three days straight. Everyone in the neighborhood gathered for an impromptu potluck. Then someone planned another one for the next night and spent the day making a snow track for the kids. What a riot!

Then it all melted. Bummer. But hey, I was thrilled. We'd FINALLY gotten some snow! I resigned myself to that snow being the great "hurrah" for the winter.

No to knock it, we made some wonderful memories. The kids talked for at least two more weeks about getting together, hanging out with the neighborhood, and playing in the snow.

Then, about 10 days ago, they started talking about "A Storm."

The closer it got, the more they refused to say how much snow we would get.

A sure sign this could be a whopper of a storm.

And it was. It measures 30" in some places in my yard. Neigboring counties in Maryland and Virginia got 43" of snow.

Guess what?

It's supposed to snow again tomorrow night. Yipeeeeeeee!

As you can tell, I'm gleeful. My husband? Not so much. You see, he's one of those shorts-loving-give-me-the-beach kinds. We're so compatible in other ways, that we tolerate this gaping rift in our enjoyment of the seasons.

He's also not enjoying this as much as I am because he's a CFO. This is first quarter - AKA Panic Time for anyone with fiduciary responsibility in an organization.

The night of the storm, it was glorious. Big fat flakes, alternating with granular, hard pelting snow that piled up and up and up. It was so silent too. No cars, no horns, no traffic or sound, just white silence. Peaceful, and yet eerie in some ways too.

Yesterday and today, we're all playing in it. One of the good things about this snow business is that, unlike summer's intermnible heat, it's ephemeral. Even today, some melted. Not much, but it dropped of the branches in great lumps, freeing the trees from their pendulous burdens. The sky was bright, bright blue, which meant everyone was out assessing the "damage."

We have company because one of our friends has no power so she and her daughter were guests of Chez Adams last night and probably tonight too. We watched the SUPER BOWL!!! complete with Who Dat! and The Who. Then Julie and Julia as a nightcap. Fab movie but after all the shoveling we were all drooping with fatigue from all the fun exercise.

This exercise element is one of the great things about winter. If I need to lose weight, I wait till winter. So much more pleasant, you see to get lots of exercise - akin to running a marathon yesterday! - without sweating like the proverbial pig.

Yep. Now you know. The truth is out. It's why I love winter. I hate to sweat. Ugh.

So, I say, bring on the SNOW!!!!

What's your favorite snow sport? Skiing? Sledding? Tobagganing? Sitting inside looking out?

What's your favorite summer sport? Our Aussie pals are in the depths of a heat wave, complete with (double ugh!) high humidity. Like to swim? Boat? Play baseball, Suz? Grins.

If you were snowed in with your hunk-o-man for four days would you go shovel or do other things? Grins. Now, that's kind of a no-brainer, isn't it?

What's the record snowfall for your area?

Are you ready for the Winter Olympics!!??