Snow

Ahh Snow...

The beautiful, majestic quality of gently falling fat flakes creates a feeling of serenity and peace within me when I'm at home, watching the back yard being transformed into a land of wonder. The big oak in the back yard is slowly transformed. I absolutely must bake something. Doesn't matter what. Bread, pie, cookies, cake, whatever. The smell of baking in the house enhances the feeling of coziness while watching the snow fall. By morning, the tree limbs are covered with a fluffy, white coat that makes each limb look like a singular work of art drawn by the hand of no less than mother nature, herself. There are icicles hanging from limbs that look like crystalline stalactites that gleam like ice diamonds when the sun shines. The bushes are coated to look like they are covered with a layer of fluffy white icing. They look like treats. Various plants in the yard look like they have been decorated with gum drops made of icing.

I remember the snowball fights, snow angels and attempts to build a snowman that were never succesful. We took the remains of our failed snowmen and pushed them into the faces of others in o ur group, laughing and falling and running. Our dog, a Husky named Niko, would come out and hop through the snow like a rabbit, running back-and-forth through the cold fluffiness. Then he would run around and around, back and forth, pounce on us and run away. He was, or course, then required to race around the yard pulling us one-by-one on our little sled. (We had no hills, then.) I am quite sure I saw a joyful, happy doggie smile on his face the entire time.

I remember buying two sleds when my son was about 11 years old -- one for me and one for him. We lived in a subdivision bordered on one side by a raised shopping strip that put us in a kind of one-sided bowl. That made for a great sledding hill. I was in my mid-thirties. My son was not used to doing anything outdoors, especially in the cold and snow. Nintendo and TV were all he cared about at the time (Oh yeah, and food). I came home and said, "Let's go sledding." What?? Where??," he said. "Right over on the hill," I said."Aww Mom, it's cold. And you're too old for that." No, I thought. He did NOT say that. Too old? 35? Well, let's just see about that. I admit I had never really been sledding before, but it seemed so much fun. I said, "put your thermals on, get your coat and your gloves. We're going." We went to the hill. I checked out the terrain. The hill led down to the subdivision parking lot, but there were very few cars around due to the time of day. I got in my sled and coasted down the hill for a bit, then the steepness and gravity took over and I was flying down the hill. Several yards from the end of the hill and parking lot, something told me to flips my body a bit sideways to make the sled dig into the snow from the side, hopefully decreasing my speed and allowing me to stop before I hit the parking lot. It worked! That must have come from my many years as a tomboy, doing stunts on my bicycle. Anyway, I showed my son how to do it, but he never seemed to enjoy it. I told him, "Just go on home, hon. I like this and I'll be back in a little bit. I learned that you are never too old to have fun playing. I had so much fun in the snow!

Screech! (Brief halt, sorry.)

Now to the reality of those of us who have to drive to work in these conditions, no matter what. We are expecting a blizzard next week in the Chicagoland area. I've lived here all of my life, so I know what to expect if this does happen. White-out conditions with snow falling so heavily that the windshield wipers cannot clear the snow from the entire windshield. Snow building up on the winsdhield below the wipers that hinders their movement. Icy, slick, treaterous road surfaces accompanied by many spinouts. Many people who forgot how to drive in the snow, causing more spinouts and multiple crashes. People who are so afraid to drive that they are going 20 mph on the expressway and people trying to get around them, creating even more danger. People with AWD vehicles thinking that they can conquer the roads, ending up either in a ditch or causing accidents that leave them, as well as the others they hit, sprawled across the traffic lanes. Roads or expressways closed down with traffic sitting there for hours and hours.

Here are some helpful things I do: Keep warm, thermal gear in the trunk, along with a mason jar in case need arises. Keep one or two blankets, a lantern, maybe a couple candles (to generate at least a little heat). Keep hand warmer pads, foot warmer pads, warm hats, socks and boots in trunk. Keep a couple bottles of water and a couple cans of any kind of food in trunk. I'm sure there is much more, but I consider these to be the basics.