Snow Time!

Winter hasn't officially arrived yet -still just the late days of November -however, the snow has begun to lay white blankets down in my neck of the woods.

The forecast for this past weekend was for Saturday to be cold but no snow and Sunday, we were to get snow showers. Now, I've lived in this area for the better part of the 69 years I've been here, on the planet, and I know not to take every forecast I read as being gospel because sometimes, Mother Nature, decides to be just a tad fickle and change gears on us. And, if she changes gears on us -the lowly residents who really don't know anything about forecasting the weather -then she's also doing those surprises to those forecasters too. Not a darned thing any of us can do to change or re-arrange the weather. At least, not the last I checked there wasn't.

Anyway, Saturday, we got the snow showers. Sunday, I gather there were some snow showers in various places but if any arrived in this vicinity, it must have been after I was in the house for the rest of the day and night as I didn't notice any new white stuff on the ground here yesterday morning.


Today? Well, today appears to be a horse of a whole different color. Make that a White Horse but looks like horses don't wear white hats and aren't especially good with respect to weather issues.

So far, I'd estimate we have at least 2 inches of fresh snow now on the ground and it's still putting more snow out -very fine snow, but that stuff builds up into more inches too if it falls long enough! It was supposed to be the day for my monthly lunch group to meet but we've decided to forgo that enjoyable event and not venture out unless it is an absolute necessity. I cleared the sidewalks with the broom and did shovel a bit on the parking area -just to keep it from getting too heavy to move around if this stuff keeps on coming. The last forecast I saw -about an hour ago -was calling for our area to get 1 -3 inches, then the white stuff is supposed to change over before afternoon to freezing rain and later in the afternoon then it is supposed to change to just rain.

The kids -especially Kurtis -had his heart set on going out and playing in the snow and building a snowman. Sad to say but with snowfall this fine, it's not going to be conducive to rolling balls into nice snowmen -not big ones, for sure and really, not even little itty-bitty snowmen either! Need to have the really good heavy (thick) kind of snowflakes that are easy to pack into a small ball and then, will pick up snow and grow if they are rolled around in the accumulation. He did manage, in his short venture outside earlier, to make my clearing the sidewalk a trifle more difficult though because he decided it would be fun to do the "slip and slide" routine on the sidewalk which then sort of clumped some of the fresh snow into a bit of a hard pack and something that I couldn't just sweep off then. Had I not tried to get some of that clumping off the cement sidewalk, it would have then frozen into nice fat and very icy spots and I really don't need that out there!

 So now, I'm going to venture out in to the weather, walking the dog. Sammy will be ecstatic about that! He seems to enjoy romping in snow whether it's a deep, heavy amount or what we have right now, a relatively light accumulation so far. When he comes back in the house though is when he will really go ballistic -running in circles all over the downstairs, from one end of the first floor to the other with no rhyme or reason as to where he's running much less what he's jumping up on and depositing major wetness on the furniture then as a result!

 Oh well. The kids will get a big kick out of his racings and chasings then! And, after that -I'm going to have to venture out in my lovely little car and hope the state road crew has been through town and dumped copious quantities of salt and other stuff mixed in with that salt to have all the roads on the hills here in town tended to and clear -just wet! Cross your fingers and hope my buggy will climb the hills without sending me into an embankment or a ditch.

 (And, if you're wondering why it is I have to venture out? I have to get up to the grocery or hardware store and purchase a nice big bag of SALT -the kind you throw out on sidewalks and parking areas and try to keep the place open as much as possible to go any place else around the township or neighboring towns too!)

 Enjoy the snow while it's still pretty!