Winter Blues

After one of the least snowy winters that I can remember, we are getting buried in the white stuff today. We did have a white Halloween, due to a freakishly early major storm; then we had a brown Christmas, followed by relatively mild weather throughout January and February; but now, wouldn't you know, just as all of us New Englanders were ready to breathe a sigh of relief and start looking forward to springtime, Old Man Winter decided to make his presence known with a vengeance.

Whom can we blame? Punxsutawney Phil? (Speaking of good old Phil, don't you love the movie "Groundhog Day"? But I digress...)

That's my second oldest son's car parked in our driveway, blanketed with snow. He's on a week-long winter break from his high school teaching job, and he came over on Tuesday to spend a little time with his father and me. He had planned to leave this morning, but the roadways around here are extremely treacherous--so it looks like he's going to be stuck for another day. As much as I love having him around, I feel terrible that this rassa-frassin' New England weather is keeping him from getting back home to his apartment about an hour south of here. He had some things he had to take care of, and now he'll have to put them off for another day.

Selfishly, I must admit, I'm glad that I'm going to have some manpower around to help me dig out when the snow finally stops falling. Before he left for a two-day trip this morning, my husband got up at the crack of dawn to snowblow the driveway, which already had about five inches of accumulation; but there's been no let-up since then, and there's definitely going to be a round two as far as snow removal. My pathetic arm muscles, capable of only about a dozen girls' push-ups at a time before they need a rest, don't have the strength to budge the snowblower, so I was planning on a couple of grueling hours of shoveling. When my son decided he'd probably stay until tomorrow, my spirit rejoiced. He's got the upper body strength to work that blessed snowblower.

Two of my sons have moved to VA in recent years, where the weather is much friendlier. (One son and his wife are also currently living in Alabama, although that's more the Army's choice than theirs.) They're probably thinking, "Thank goodness we don't have to deal with all that nonsense down here!" But the snow is beautiful. And it's not so bad, as long as you can afford to hole up in your cozy nest while the storm rages and ride it out...in a bathrobe...with a good book...preferably with a fire in the fireplace...

Some winters, we get pounded by so many Nor'easters that by now, we've all got the winter blues. But since this winter has been so kind to us so far, I'm going to try to keep my complaining to a minimum!