We are rapidly entering that time of the year commonly referred to as the winter doldrums. It's that time in the northern climates when it's more cold than beautiful. The Currier and Ives image of falling snow and horse drawn sleighs has long given way to trucks salting icy roads, heating and cooling companies out rescuing overworked furnaces, and plumbers on the move day and night with heaters and torches, thawing frozen pipes. People with the means are excitedly talking about their upcoming trip to Florida or Arizona. (People of real means left for those zip codes at least a month ago.) For little kids it's especially hard because there hasn't been enough snow to play in and it's been too dang cold to go outside even if there were. Until yesterday.
Around 4 o'clock yesterday it started snowing. A fog of fine flakes fell for several hours giving the whole landscape a nice new coat of paint. By the time dinner was over Ev had to be out there, junior size snow shovel in hand, racing around the patio, the driveway, the sidewalk. He'd stop just long enough to lob a shovel of powder at the dog who was also racing around and plowing through the powder.
The forecast for today indicates a high of 27, which may not sound like much to those of you to the far west and far south, but believe me, it's a significant improvement from 7. Hopefully, our new top coat will hold up to an hour or so of sledding today. (Hopefully my body will as well.) It's just the kind of touch up we need around here this time of year. A happy reminder of just how fun winter can be.
Then Florida next week.
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