Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow (as if I have a choice)

Winter descended upon us with full force this past weekend. The first storm on Friday dumped 9 inches of snow, canceled school statewide, and generally made for a beautiful but cold and snowy day with hazardous to impossible driving conditions. I’d shopped for food the day before so didn’t need to leave the house. It lightly snowed off and on most of Saturday. On Sunday we had a repeat performance with slightly less snow and some sleet. I think that Winter announced it’s official arrival (Sunday) with a bit of overkill.

Here is a picture of Mr. Twinkle. He’s actually a 9” ruler that my son made to measure snow. Mr. Twinkle was up to his neck in it on Saturday when we measured the first snowfall. He looks altogether too happy about it!

I don’t generally mind snow. The snow plows come out in force and the roads are usually passable. I live on a side road that is not as well plowed as the main roads are. In addition, I live on the top of a hill. I did run out between storms on Saturday when it was lightly snowing. I took my daughter with me and was talking to her about driving in snow, what to do in a skid, etc. Then I was able to show her how to handle a skid. We were only going 25 mph so it was not a very dramatic skid and the car has traction so it was a piece of cake. Actually it was probably some ice under the snow! Fortunately I am extremely comfortable driving in snow. Better yet I did not encounter one person driving in a manner that indicated that they thought their 4 wheel drive could handle anything. You’ve got to respect the weather conditions when you drive in bad weather.

My kids really love the snow:

I think that this is going to be a very snowy and very cold winter, much more like the New England winters I remember from when I was a kid. I’ve noticed that the squirrels around here are fatter and puffier looking than I’ve seen them in many years. It probably means that they’re well fed and have nice winter coats, but I’m sticking with the idea that it’s a weather predictor.

Children frolicking in the snow (my daughter is making a snow angel and was not knocked down by her brother):

And just to add a little excitement to the frigid weather the furnace decided to get sick on Friday. I nursed it all through Friday night into Saturday morning, pressing the reset button when necessary. We had some very anemic heat. It was probably the absolute minimum to keep the pipes from freezing and bursting, but not enough to actually heat the house. Our furnace also heats our water, so no hot water. On Saturday morning the oil company that maintains our furnace and delivers oil called me even before they opened to let me know that a tech was on the way. The pipe feeding the oil to the furnace was partially obstructed with sludge. The tech cleaned it, and viola – heat and hot water. Yay!

And keeping with today's theme, here are Celtic Woman singing Let It Snow:

The kids and I would like to wish you and yours a joyous holiday season and a New Year filled with all good things. May the most that you wish for be the least that you get! Cheers!

Qwill's Qwestion: What's happening with your Winter weather? Any winter driving pet peeves?