As I sit here looking out and the blizzard that is raging just outside my window, my thoughts turn to snow.
The part of me that has not yet grown up, loves snow. Trekking out in it can be an adventure. I learned to drive during one of those winters where it snowed every couple of days. I didn't get to drive on clean pavement until Spring, if I remember correctly. So I'm comfortable driving in the white stuff. I just have to watch out for those people who panic on the roads at the first flake.
I recall snow storms from my youth . There was one when I was in high school that happened on a Saturday into Sunday, as this one is. Troopers all, my family headed out on foot for church - a walk of about a 3/4 of a mile to a mile. The snow had stopped and the sun came out so it wasn't too bad. no one was out in a car, so we strolled along in the middle of the street to avoid walks that hadn't been shoveled out yet. Along the way, we met some fellow parishioners and neighbors heading in the same direction. They joined us, so by the time we had completed half of our journey, we had quite a mob of people.
I don't remember being cold or tired. I just remember it as being great fun and feeling like quite the adventurer.
During another storm 5 or 6 years later, I was supposed to be going to my fiance (now my husband) Roger's house for dinner. This was another Saturday into Sunday storm. My mother kept insisting that he wouldn't come, but two of his traits are reliability and determination. Around the time he was supposed to pick me up, The deep rumble of his Corvette broke the stillness as he turned onto my street 2 blocks away. I'm quite sure my mother and father were convinced that I was marrying a crazy person.
I put on my coat and boots and we tramped down the walk to his car. As he attempted to drive away, we realized there was a problem. Corvette bodies have been made of fiberglass for some time, so they don't weigh as much as they would if made of steel. The wheels were not touching the ground and the snow was soft. When the wheels first spun, they blew the snow out from under the tires, but not the body of the car. It was not sitting atop the snow! Needless to say, we did not get to his house for dinner that day.
He had to dig the snow out from under the car so we could maneuver it into our driveway - not fun! We ended up joining my parents instead of his parents for dinner and he ended up staying until the next day.
The grown up side of me hates the shoveling part of a big snowfall. I recorded my thoughts on this subject in an essay called Reflections on Snow.
Posted by Cyberkat at December 6, 2003 2:19 PM