Tuesday, February 13, 2007

and so it begins . . .

. . . just like that, almost innocently, small, pretty flakes floating down. Just barely a dusting covering any surface that we'd previously cleared of the three to four inches of snow that's fallen in the past month or so.

The last forecast for my county said we'll get between 20 and 30 inches. I'm trying to look out and remember what my yard looks like, because I don't think I'll be seeing it for awhile.

:::::sigh:::::

I spoke too soon

:::::sigh:::::

Second to the highly insulting snowstorm-on-my-birthday that I spoke of before is snowstorm-on-Valentine's-Day. Ugh. They're saying we could get 24-36 inches. I guess when people less than a 3 hours' drive from here got over 11 feet and still expect more, I shouldn't complain, but still, there it is.

Sunday, February 11, 2007

There but for the grace of God . . .

We live in what we refer to as "upstate NY". Just a couple of counties over from Oswego county, really. And we've been really blessed this year (from the perspective of this non-snow-lover). We have less than 6 inches on the ground, and that's the most we've had all year.

Here's a link if you want to see what our "neighbors" to the west are dealing with. Every time I hear about it I thank God again that it didn't happen to us.

One article I read referred to it as an "unreal" amount of snow. 8-10 FEET in one week, can you imagine? I can't believe roofs aren't caving in all over the place out there.

Just so you know, we haven't always been blessed. I remember -- I think it was 1993, or it may have been 1994. We had at least 3 12-inch snow storms in February. We'd had storms before then, but I remember those three because my husband took a week-long missions trip to Mexico. They closed the airport right after their plane took off in the first of the 3 February storms. We just barely got out of the driveway without getting stuck, taking him to the airport. Then I had to find someone to plow the driveway and wait at a friend's house while it was plowed -- with a toddler in tow. Then another storm on Wed. -- I had to leave the toddler alone in the house while I went outside and shoveled the sidewalk and cleaned off and moved the cars around out of the way of the plow guy. Then there was the 3rd storm, my husband's plane was the first one in after they re-opened the airport (no it hadn't been closed for the whole week). We lost a whole station wagon that week, we didn't see it again till April. And that wasn't the end. We had 2-1/2 feet of snow in March, all at once. I remember it took the plow guy almost 2 hours to plow the driveway. The dog couldn't go anywhere but the driveway anymore, it was too deep for her to walk. We didn't see the ground until about 5 days before Memorial Day that year. I built a snowman in April.

Then there was the year we got 27 inches of snow on my birthday. What an insult. Most towns around us got about 8-10 inches that day, we just lucked out with 2 feet more. We lost our sidewalk that time -- gave up shoveling it till spring.

So I think we're due for a reprieve. I'm just thrilled to be getting it. I should probably keep my mouth closed, Winter's not over yet.