It snowed here yesterday. October is far too early for snow, in my opinion. If you ask me, the first – and last – snowfall should occur on December 24. It should hang around for Christmas, but then it needs to vamoose on December 26 so as not to interfere with my travel plans.
Clearly I live in the wrong state. Sadly, my dreams of wintering somewhere more tropical are not likely to come true any time soon.
This little burst of winter got me thinking, though, about winters past. I didn’t always hate the snow and the cold. When I was a kid, I used to relish them. I loved sledding and ice skating and building snow forts. I loved walking atop the frozen snow in my neighbors’ yards on my way to and from school, my stomach quivering as I wondered how long it would be before I plunged ankle-deep into a frosty hole.
Now this is how fall should be – pretty!
I used to find the cold invigorating; now I just find it awful. I’m sure this is due in no small part to my inability to warm up once I get cold. If only I could plug myself in, the way my dad used to plug in our car…
When I was little, we had a big green Dodge boat. We didn’t have a garage, so my parents parked it on the street. When a passing tractor demolished it because the driver didn’t get far enough into the other lane, we replaced it with a silver Chrysler boat. I loved that car. My dad would park it in the yard on cold winter nights and plug it into the house so that it would start in the mornings. It’d be nice if I could do something similar. Maybe it would make getting out of bed on cold winter mornings more bearable. 🙂
The problem, of course, with my hatred of snow and cold is that my kids love it. They love sledding and making snow angels and building snowmen in our front yard. And while part of me longs to reclaim the joy those things once brought me, a much more vocal part of me wants nothing more than to curl up under my lovely warm down blanket with a cup of tea and a good book.
What about you – what are some of your favorite winter memories?
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Suddenly they all died. The end. 
Oh yes, I loved all those winter things as a child. Snow, I used to think when my kids were young, is a great free toy. But now the cold gets into me in about November and stays there all winter. So we’re about to become snowbirds this year, and go off somewhere warm!
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Ooo, lucky you! Enjoy your warm winter! 🙂 I want to be a snowbird someday – I just can’t imagine living anywhere else besides Iowa, but an extended vacation in the midst of winter somewhere warm would be quite lovely, I think. Especially after the frigid rain we had yesterday while we were outside moving firewood.
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We should swap homes! It hardly ever snows here, we seem to only ever manage one small snowfall a year if that! and I love the snow 😦
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Maybe we should! At least for a visit, anyway. 😀
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It would be good! Although knowing my luck when I visited you you’d be having a freak warm spell and I’d miss the snow!!
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Not likely this year. We’re already suffering temps 20 degrees below normal. I think this is gonna be one of those years where all the kids go trick-or-treating in snowsuits.
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They keep promising snow here but all we seem to get is warm, wet and windy! 😀
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We’ve been cold, wet, and windy. I think I’d like it better if it was warm! 😀
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An anti-memory of the snow for me was rather foolishly tossing a snowball at an enormous elk in the arctic. I didn’t realise it was just a baby until an even huger elk about the size of an ocean liner began smashing down trees in order to remonstrate with those enormous horns of hers. Lucky I had skis.
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Lucky, indeed! I’ve never seen an elk. I think I’m okay with that. With my luck, it would just run out in front of my car like the stupid deer.
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I was in the Marines at the time and carrying a rifle that would easily penetrate an engine block at one mile. I would just have annoyed it if I’d shot at it.
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That’s why you shoot them twice. 😉
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No, I’ve never been hunting. I’d rather get my meat from the supermarket. and I particularly don’t like elk meat which everyone in Norway eats. Far too rich.
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I’ve never eaten elk, but my husband hunts deer and I’d been eating it for years before we met (my ex-father-in-law was a deer hunter, too). We take it to a locker for processing, but it’s still cheaper than buying hamburger at the store. Leaner, too. 🙂
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I don’t mind getting cold as long as I can get warm later — a warm bath will do but a hot tub is even better.
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Ooo, hot tubs are nice! But it seems every time I have the opportunity to enjoy one, I’m pregnant. That’s not a problem anymore, but my opportunities seem to have dried up.
Hot chocolate and tea are also lovely ways to warm up. 😀
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It snowed here the other day, too. I used to hate winter until I got skis and a dog (I got them separately, but they amount to the same thing – winter’s more fun now).
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I’m glad that made winter better for you! I’m not really a dog person and the two times I’ve tried skiing (once downhill and once cross-country), I didn’t like it. I do like ice skating, but I’m terrible at it.
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