Snow 2015

Ode to Snow?

“Snow – Snow- Snow- I want to wash my hands, my face and hair in SNOW …”

Not so much.

With all due respect to Rosemary, Bing, Vera and Danny, and Irving Berlin, I’m over Snow.

At least for this season.

On February 16, I was in Tennessee, visiting my mother. We had two inches of sleet  there.

And that was bad enough, but back home in Kentucky, more than ten inches of snow fell at our house, followed by three more inches a few days later. And COLD. Both Tennessee and Kentucky had some overnight subzero temps, and it stayed continuously below freezing during the day with little or no sun. The snow lingered. It thawed a tiny little bit during the day IF the sun shone, but refroze every night. By the time I came home over a week later, the shiniest, slickest coating of thick ice (that I’ve ever seen) topped the still deep snow. And though our awesome Ballard County road department plowed and cleared (mostly) the main roads, our secondary roads and driveways and parking lots remained a problem. It looked and felt like an ice skating rink! Treacherous!

And it lingered. How many times have I heard this old saying? “If the snow hangs around, it’s waiting around for another snow storm.”

 

Look at the icy sheen on the snow!

 

Monster icicles!

Well, there’s a reason that sayings become adages.

On March 3^rd, we drove to Nashville for the day, leaving behind clear roads, but yards still covered in snow.

 

 Heavy rains set in on our drive home, and by the next morning, most of our snow had disappeared. 

In this process, I learned a new phrase: Ice Damming. The heavy snow piled on our upstairs deck had nowhere to go when the rains came, except inside. We currently have a big water stain on our living room ceiling. But it, at least, is paint-able. A friend of ours was not so fortunate. Her roof collapsed and water came pouring into her house, causing thousands of dollars’ in damage. The national news posted similar events all over the storm affected country.

Here, the joke became … if there’s still snow on the ground the weekend we Spring Forward for DST, at least we’ll be able to see the snow after six p.m.!

A couple days later with the snow gone and the rain finally ending, it felt like Winter MIGHT be drawing to a close. Come on SPRING!

But no.

On Monday, March 9 (MARCH, for heaven’s sake), Kentucky caught another Winter Storm. Overnight, it dumped a foot of snow on my house! A FOOT OF SNOW. IN MARCH. (Some communities got 16 inches, some got 25 inches!). As a retired teacher, I empathize with the school systems who must cope with make up days, testing schedules, and children who have missed nearly two weeks of school!

 

We haven’t had this much snow in several years. At least not in one storm. It was a wet snow, unlike the first one, and good snowman-making material. We never make one, but I enjoyed all the amazing pictures posted on FB. My favorite was the re-staging - ‘Snowman style’ - of raising the flag at Iwo Jima! Folks never fail to amaze me with their creativity. 

 (FB)

We shoveled the deck this time (Yep, we learned our lesson!).  And this snow was followed by sun and slightly warmer temps. It didn’t last nearly as long. 

We've had more snow than we're used to in Kentucky, but we are mighty thankful we don't live in Boston. Much of New England had one big snowstorm after another - a true Snow-pocalypse - with nearly five or six feet of the white stuff on the ground at a time. The cyber pictures were interesting! 

 (FB)

 (FB)

In the interval between the end of the snow and some drying up of the yard, I cleaned and straightened my screened-in porch (can NOT wait). I scouted the yard for emerging bulbs (and found them) and picked up fallen limbs from the storm. Definite A-N-T-I-C-I-P-A-T-I-O-N of warmer weather to come! Our local weatherman blogger says we’re not out of the woods yet; there’s more cold to come. BUT I think I see a spring light at the end of the winter tunnel!

Come on, Mother Nature! We’re SO ready for SPRING!

What a Year!

2014.
Christmas Eve.

Drinking my early morning coffee, just before beginning the last minute rush to get ready, pack the car and do the road trip toward Family ...

It's been a year of change, but then, aren't they all. And Blessings. Many blessings.

My mom lost her voice during one of those freaky illnesses where it looked like one thing and turned out to be something else. Two surgeries, 40 fewer lbs., and some therapy later, she can make words louder than a whisper. But as the doctor said, "Don't think about getting on stage at the Opry." Thankful that she has remained healthy through out. On the upside - shopping and a new wardrobe! Ron's mom spent a week in the hospital, a traumatic experience for a sweet lady who loves sleeping in her own bed at night. Thankful that she made the best of it, that it turned out as well as it could have, and that she's back home again, none the worse for the experience.

Our son and his family FINALLY got out of the FLOOD House ... the courts are slow to move, but the case was settled at long last, and they were able to move into a beautiful new home far away from creeks and low places. Thankful for this fine son of ours and his family.

Faking Normal. THE book. Debut! Dreams do come true. Courtney C. Stevens launched at Parnassus Books in Nashville on February 25th and Barnes & Noble in Bowling Green and the Grille in Mt. Pleasant. And people CAME and they bought. It's been a great year for Courtney ... learning how to sell herself and her book, book tours, school visits and writing workshops, library visits, book festivals, panels, writing retreats. In the midst she "channeled her brave" and wrote a second book; and sold more future books and taught her collegiate classes and learned how to BE. An exciting year. A difficult year. But in the end, she forged a new future for herself. Thankful.

Multiple trips to the beach ... it's our Happy Place. Just us. Immediate family. Extended family. Beach friends. Thankful for our love of a place and for the beauty and peace it brings to all of us.

Our beach is where Courtney set Book Two ... The Lies About Truth. It launches in October of 2015. Thankful for this girl-child of ours and her talent and kindness and wisdom. Thankful for the role she allows me to share in her dreams.

Our moms. We've both lost our dads in past years, the strong backbones of our childhoods. But we have our beautiful moms. There are health challenges for each, but they remain faithful and loving, always making the best of whatever IS. Thankful.

The two of us. The TWO of us! Forty-four years and we're like the Energizer Bunny ... still going! The road to aging can be a bumpy one, but we persevere.  There's a hand to hold and love to share, and we're sticking together, no matter what comes. Thankful. Very thankful.

Friends. This year has brought a re-connection with old friends and the addition of new ones, and I'm grateful. Facebook has its little evils, but it also allows for connections, and for that I'm thankful. Also for the continued blessing of the friends who surround us daily; the ones who have our backs through the good times and the bad times. Thankful.

Church, also a year of change and growth within our close-knit church family. What would we do without our support group! Thankful!

And there's change with this holiday season, too. For the first time, we're going to my sister's for Christmas Day. It's either been at Mom's or at our house for the family for all of my life. Circumstances - the fact that our son has to work on Christmas Day (fireman) and that Mom is 92 - dictate a change. So this year, I'm not cooking or preparing the house for multiple guests and multiple days of meals. I shopped early, wrapped gifts early, decorated the house and sent Christmas cards and enjoyed watching the hustle and bustle from afar. The least stressful Christmas in recent memory. Thankful!

Today we will celebrate communion with our daughter at her church. We'll visit with family and add our gifts beneath a tree that isn't ours. Tonight we'll sleep in a bed that isn't our own. And in the morning, Christmas Day, we'll arise to share a meal and open presents and visit in a home,that belongs to other beloved family members. We'll share the day with extended family, including beautiful children who are full of wide-eyed Christmas excitement. And we'll be grateful and thankful for Jesus' birth and the many, many ways 2014 blessed our family. We'll put away whatever sad thoughts we had about this past year - its disappointments and failures and struggles - and we'll begin to embrace the new. We'll "channel our brave" and look forward with added strength to the start of another year with family and friends.

Thankful.

First SNOW!

On Sunday evening, November 16, 2014, it started snowing. It was late, but Facebook exploded with posts about where it was snowing locally and how much was coming down. I stood at the window and watched through the trees where the security light made the flakes visible.

Everyone was in awe.

Because we don't live in the northwest or the New England states where an early snow is fairly common. We live in far Western Kentucky. We don't even see measurable snow every single winter - December, January or February - much less before Thanksgiving.

We knew it was coming. At least ... the weather experts said it was. But as we're all aware, they've been wrong before! Sometimes it feels as if the forecasters get it right about as many times as the folks who predict it using Woolly Worms or tree rings (locally, Dick Frymire used his Rooster named Jack). I remember many times as a teacher when forecasters were "certain" we'd get snow; I admit it, Snow Days were pretty exciting for me then. Unfortunately, the disappointment when the snow didn't come was greater than the sum of all the excitement and hype about the mere possibility! And we all remember at least one time when snow came as a big surprise even to the experts. It didn't even give us time to run out and get milk, bread and toilet paper! So, now days, I always take the forecast with a grain of salt (while secretly hoping that it WILL snow!)

This year the weathermen explained again about the Polar Vortex and how it works and why. They expounded on how unusual it was to reach so far south. But the predictions of our snowfall varied with as many different news sources that were available. All those weather computer models mean different things to the weather prophets, so by late afternoon on Sunday our snow predictions were anywhere from a dusting to five inches. As I went to bed, I wondered if the dusting we already had would dissipate overnight.

It happened while we slept, mostly unseen, so it felt magical to wake up on Monday morning to 3 1/2 inches (I measured!) on the ground.

There's just something about the first snow that harkens back to childhood snow days and going  sledding down the hill with friends.  I grew up on the best hill in our small town. Our house was in the middle block  where the hill nearly flattened out, but the upper portion of the street was steep. With the proper ice and snow cover, a sledder could go all the way to my house and even further. Kids and adults flocked to our street when it snowed. Thankfully, the street was impassible to cars.It was always a cold, cold struggle to tramp back up the street after a dreamlike-over-too-soon journey down, but the moment we reached the top, all that huffing and puffing was worth it; and down we'd go again!  Good times!

There aren't any sledding hills where I live in Western Kentucky, not even small slopes. I remember pulling my children on a sled in the yard when they were little and wishing they could experience the heart-stopping rides of my childhood snow days.

I love snow! Particularly, when there's nowhere I have to go. But these days I'm content to watch it snow and to stay toasty warm indoors!