Oh, hey look, it's snowing again.

This isn't another rant about how spectacularly long this winter has been. Seems pointless, right? So instead, let's look at some pictures of the admittedly pretty snow. I'm not thrilled it arrive, but it was very lovely as and just after it fell.

Sad rhododendrons :(

Here's the back yard. In order to get to our wood pile, you have to cross from the garage to the opposite corner of our lot. Twice this winter, I shoveled a path to it while Dwight powered through with wheelbarrow after wheelbarrow of wood. It was pretty brutal. The funny thing, though, is that the outdoor critters, wild and domestic alike, used this trench as well. Deer, squirrels, and one of the neighborhood cats seemed especially grateful for the way to get around that didn't involve 12-20+ inches of snow!

But no complaining about all of this "winter bounty." Aside from there being nothing I can do about it, we're getting just that much closer to spring. Whew.

My mother, however took a far more humorous approach to the weather. She cleans our house usually once a week (I pay her, don't get the wrong idea) and she left this note for us on Friday.

I burst out laughing. My mom put my snowman ornament - my nod to winter "decorating" - in time out, turning him around and putting him in the corner. Awesome.

I come by my goofy sense of humor quite naturally.

It's Snowmaggedon! Or Snowpocalypse! Or something.

It's snowing, of that I am certain. And it's piling up and going to get super duper cold, so I guess I get why people have their knickers in a twist about it.


 

Part of me still just wants to tell everyone, "Hey, it's northern Indiana. In January. It *supposed* to snow" but everyone seems intent on freaking out, in no small part due to the near-constant stream of "OH MY GOD, WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE!" type of weather reports coming from the local stations.


 

 All I know is I have plenty of food to last a long time, so bring it, Mother Nature. I got this.

Lake Effect Snow

If you live anywhere near the Great Lakes, you'll know what I mean when I talk about lake effect snow. For the rest of you, I'll give the Something Shiny Reader's Digest version of this weather event.

When especially cold air crosses over a large body of water, in my case Lake Michigan, it warms up as it passes over the relatively warm lake water. By most standards, the water is hardly "warm" but 45°F is significantly warmer than the air temperatures this time of year (generally speaking). This now warm-ish air then passes back over land — and this is when the fun begins.

Clouds form over the water and when they hit land and cool down— BAM! You've got snow. People right at the lake's edge remain unscathed because the air hasn't had time to cool just yet. A few miles out, though, they get nailed.

The really fun thing about lake effect snow is that it's unpredictable. It can change pretty much whenever it wants to; you're at the mercy of wind speed and direction. I live about 50 miles east of Lake Michigan about a mile south of the Indiana-Michigan border. I'm close enough to experience plenty of lake effect snow, but far enough away to not get completely blasted by it. Go 10, 20, 30 miles west of here and it's a different story each place. Now, that all depends on the direction of the wind, but they're pretty much in the  "sweet spot" when it comes to lake effect snow.

If the wind comes directly from the north rather than northwest, which is the most common, we won't even see lake effect here. Ah, the power of nature.



Over the last 36 hours or so, we've been dealing with lake effect snow, most of it happening overnight. We had a couple of inches when I came home from work around 6:00 pm, but by this morning we had close to 8 inches. Dwight and I went out to shovel around 9:15 this morning. It looked like this:





After about 15 minutes, the snow really picked up again.


Dwight and I were covered and what we'd already shoveled was piling back up with fresh snow. The one good thing about it being so cold is that the snow is nice and light. None of that heavy, wet stuff that is a pain to shovel.

But three minutes later, the light started to change. "I think the sun's coming out." I turned to look at the sky and sure enough, it started looking like this:


The snow you see falling isn't from the sky, it's from the tree branches. The air had been completely still but the tiniest whisper of wind made the snow come tumbling out of the branches. As I said, this is really light snow and doesn't take much encouragement to blow around.

Then, 6 minutes later, it was brightening up even more.

And looking very pretty.


I put down the camera once again and got to work re-shoveling the walk up to the house. In that 20 minute span, we'd gotten another 1/2 in or so.


And it just kept getting prettier and prettier until it's was downright gorgeous out.

I'm no fan of snow, but you can't argue with how beautiful it can be in the right conditions. It cleans things right up, like a fresh coat of paint on a dingy wall.




It stayed sunny for a few hours, but it's snowing again now. I can't see the driveway anymore. And so it goes...

Dear Winter,

Hey. It's me. I know you and I have never been the best of friends and I've been mostly OK with that — although for the last few years it's gotten worse and worse for me. And I think it's time we called it quits. I know I'm not the only one feeling this way, Winter. SO many of my friends are feeling the same way.

You're a drag, man. Sticking around long past your welcome, dumping tons of snow all over the place. It's got to stop.

I know, I know. It's still only February but you have to admit that it's been too cold for too long and it's time for you to start moving on. I suppose this is where I'm supposed to say, "It's not you, it's me" but we both know that's not true. It's totally you. And a bit me, too. Fine, I confess that I have it out for you, I'll give you that.

It all comes down to this:  I am SO over you. Now get your stuff and GET OUT!

Sincerely,

Me

A taste of the days to come

Today was lovely. The sun was shining and it was so warm that much of the snow has melted, at least where the sun could reach it most of the day. The piles, especially the very large ones, are still there, but I can see grass. It's matted, dull and in many places completely sodden, but it's there. I just checked and it reached 54 degrees today—a veritable heat wave. Balmy...heavenly.

It's been an unusually cold winter and getting a taste of the spring to come was wonderful. I even went for a walk after coming home from work. I only needed a sweatshirt and I did wear one of those headband thingies to cover my ears because they're unusually sensitive to cold and wind, even if either or both are slight. I brought light gloves, but only wore them briefly. I eventually had to unzip my sweatshirt. It's been too long since I've been able to go for a walk like that and it was so refreshing.

I did have a scare at the end of it, though. I came home the "back" way—a road that is bordered on one side by vacant land and the other by approximately 12 acres of wetlands. I turned the corner and my heart—and feet—stopped. In the middle of the road, about 40 yards away, I saw what I thought was either a tall dog or some sort of wild animal, like a coyote (I don't even know if we have those around here, but that's what it looked like from a distance). The light was waning and it was hard to make out, but I was literally terrified. (I've had dogs run at me, snarling and barking, while on walks, and I'm now petrified of being attacked by one.) It had definitely seen me since we both stared at each other when I rounded the corner.

As I turned to walk away, glancing over my shoulder for sign of a chase, something else caught my eye off the side of the road. Deer. Probably 6 of them. Oh, thank God. The creature in the road was a small deer NOT a vicious beast. They all saw me and turned back into the wetland area. I thought about continuing that way since I figured they were just as afraid of me, but I decided not to chance it.

My heart was racing and my legs were shaking. In a matter of seconds, even fractions of a second, my flight or fight mechanism was working overtime, flooding my system with needed adrenaline. I decided to put it to use and ran the rest of the way home, back the way I came.

Despite the scare, it was still a great walk. The moon was out and almost full, the clouds were a lovely shade of pink and the promise of spring was in the air.

Squeaky Snow

It's not quite "nails on a chalkboard" level, but the sound of snow squeaking under foot gives me a similar, unpleasant shiver up my spine and makes my teeth hurt. It's not my favorite way to start the day, that's for sure, but it's what I have to listen to as I walk from the car to the office door on these bitterly cold mornings. 

I guess the one good thing about having such a cold and snowy winter is that I'll appreciate spring all that much more. When will that be? It can't come too soon, I can tell you that much.

Cancelled

Due to the impending OMG-we're-going-to-get-3-inches-of-snow-and-it's-going-to-blow-around-and-stuff-and-OMG-it's-freaking-COLD storm, I don't have tap class tonight. I wish I could say I was disappointed, but I'm not. Even though I'm pretty sure I'm not going to be stranded by The Storm, I was not looking forward to the drive. I make fun of it, but the blowing snow is a pain, not to mention having to deal with all of the other drivers on the road, I'd rather not have to mess with it. 

These single-digit temps, frigid wind chills and lake-effect snow showers are getting old. You'd think I'd be used to this by now since I've lived here my entire life, but I'm not. I don't completely hate winter, but I'd rather visit it every once in a while, when it was convenient or I felt like playing in the snow, than live in it all the time. OK, so it's not winter her forever, but sometimes this place feels like Narnia. But without all of the talking animals and stuff. 

(Shiny Distraction Tangent: Man, I can't tell you how much I wished I could get into Narnia as a kid. Seriously. In the middle of the night, I'd wake up and see a shadow on the wall and wish it was a door to that secret world. Honestly, if I'd ever actually GONE to a parallel world, it would have scared the crap out of me, but theoretically, it sounded way awesome.)

So anyway. The weather sucks — and blows — and I'm SO over winter.