The White Stuff

The sky is falling and its coming down in beautiful white crystals. Shit! I gotta shovel my driveway and then worry about what condition the streets are in. You know there are lots of idiots out there. I get to wear my cool boots though. What about the pinched nerve in my neck? I’m sure shoveling snow will help that…

Winter in Colorado is quite the mixed bag. There are lots of snow bunnies and bunnies in the snow. Sweatshirts proclaim “Let it Snow!”, and locals and tourists hit the slopes by the thousands. The ski industry is a major contributor to state revenue. Swoosh! I am not a skier, and I doubt I will learn now at 64, but you know it might be fun to snowshoe. I wonder how much it is to rent snowshoes for a day?

Snow days were the best when I was a kid in Iowa. Sometimes when we went to bed it was snowing, and I prayed for some wind. Wind plus snow equals blizzard. It was such a wonderful feeling to be “out” of school on a school day. Possibilities were endless. If conditions improved by late morning, we could get outside to build snow forts and fire our snowball weapons at each other. I had so many brothers and sisters that armies could be called up for active duty at a moments notice. Our mittens were soaked and our hands burned with the cold, but what the hell we were having fun.

Adults can be such fuddy-duddies, me included. Even as a teenager, I hoped that snow would not call off an event I was really looking forward to. Adult responsibilities for shoveling, cleaning the car off, and dressing your toddlers in those spacesuit/snowsuits took some of the joy out of snowy days. At least watching your toddlers walk like little spacemen was pretty funny.

Roger and I seldom let the snow keep us from our early morning walks. Dressing to go out in the snow was time consuming and required a lot of motivation. Windchill was the deciding factor for me. The frost on our eyelashes was a pretty effect, runny noses not so much. Roger always had cold feet so getting and keeping his feet warm was priority. I regretted not having a hat too many times so finally learned to have one in my pocket just in case. We were often the first set of footprints in the snow, explorers in the wilds of the city.

I am writing at my coffee shop, so obviously I got my driveway shoveled. The streets are getting less snow packed and mostly just wet. The coffee keeps me warm while I look out at the light snow. Slush is next, but for now it is just another snowy day in Colorado.