SnOMG

On January 16, I mentioned in this spot that January, the nadir of winter, was half gone. I was wrong. There is no low lower than February of 2010 in the Washington, DC area. We have been blasted, buffeted, blind-sided and battered by a series of storms that have made all past 'snow events' look like a chilly day in Miami. There is much to be grateful for...JC is at home, rather than somewhere on the road, as he has been in the past; we have plenty of supplies (I even had a 50-lb bag of ice-melt, which is, I might say, woefully inadequate); we are within trekking distance of a grocery store, a pharmacy, a bank, and even restaurants. We are hardly deprived.

But (and there is always a 'but') this winter has been wearying in the extreme. I've heard the jokes about what wimps we are here in DC (What is a foot of snow in Minneapolis? June) and watched TV weather people catalogue the many things that you should NEVER do in a snowstorm (like drive..) If this were a yearly process, I guess we'd be used to it and either deal with it or move south. But it's not.

This year has been historically the snowiest on record. We are not used to making our way each day across glaciers of refrozen pavement, or climbing mini-mountains of ice and snow simply to cross the street. I look out my window and see icicles that could impale a wildebeest if they fell, and all of a sudden, people have started talking about the imminent reality of roof collapse. I see gutters sagging or broken from local buildings, and yellow 'caution' tape strung across sidewalks. There are fallen wires, fallen tree limbs, ancient boxwoods bowed under towers of snow. The least errand becomes an exercise in logistics. Is a car required? Is there a place to park? Should I walk? Are the sidewalks cleared? How much can I safely carry and still keep an eye on my footing? How far, how cold, how slippery, how necessary? How long ago it seems when I could walk out the door, and with no further thought, jump into my car and run a morning's worth of errands on autopilot...

I am no longer amused. I am tired. I want my life back--the life before snow. Where I was ready to start an exercise program. Where I had control of my own little world. Where the sun shone, and the sky was blue, and the roads were clear. Spring is 36 days away. Have faith.