Snow

I have to say there hasn't been many snows I've failed to like or find something interesting about. We average close to 30" of snow a year usually coming in 4 to 6" increments; just enough to keep the snow blower from seizing and enough to remind us that it is winter.

I remember a 24" snow Valentine's Day in 1983. I remember this because Bob and I had just moved into our first house, a 109 year old gray stone in the city, a couple of months before. He had been anxious about the purchase of this home because we didn't have a down payment and he thought we would need several thousand to get in it. We had $300 and with that bought the house. I was scheduled to work that day. At that time I only worked part time at a more prestigious restaurant in the area. Well, needless to say, I didn't make it to work that day. I couldn't even find my car. The drifts of snow were nearly five feet high in spots and my car was under one of those drifts. Even though there was no way anyone was getting out of the parking lot, all the neighbors got together with their shovels and shoveled out the parking lot entirely, knowing that the city wouldn't do it until the very last thing. The roads around the little complex were all plowed and some people actually had to get to work.

We got our Newfoundland, Captain in 1986 and I recall him loving the snow. But it wasn't until the winter of 1995 that we found out how much he loved it and why. That year we were living in our second house, a ten year old brick ranch in the burbs. Bob was anxious about the purchase of this house because it had a two car garage and about a 1/4 acre of property with it. It was the dream he thought he'd never see. It was a cold year and the snow started falling early, before Christmas with an average snow of at least 8" and sometimes more. One blizzard (we don't get many of these) was 36" deep. We reached a total of 62" on the ground at once that year! Now that's a lot of snow. Many times, we'd put Captain out and he would have to plow his way through the snow and he was a BIG boy at about 32" tall and weighing 175 pounds. What all this snow did was to take away the property boundaries for the dog. He loved to go visit the neighbors while they were out shoveling their driveways. Everyone knew Captain quite well and weren't afraid of him. He considered all the neighbors friends and their children his wards. This particular snow, after visiting and saying hello to all the neighbors out shoveling driveways, he helped the children with their sledding techniques. Captain passed away later that same year.

We built this house in 2002 and every since, wouldn't you know it, there hasn't been a winter gone by without some sort of significant snowfall. The winter of 2003, the snow started falling Thanksgiving, 2002 and didn't stop until almost May of 2003. We averaged 36" a snow yet I wouldn't consider any of the snowstorms blizzards. I actually missed a day of work that year because of the stuff. 2004 really wasn't much better, though there were less snowfalls. But it was cold that year and the snow lingered, stretching from one storm to the next. 2005 was much the same. It seems that that would be par for this area as far as snowfall. I knew when we built here that the weather was a good bit different from the weather in the city, even though we are only 10 miles from the city. The southern end of the county always did seem to get worse weather especially after you pass though a small town called New Danville.

This year, so far, we got a small dusting of snow around Christmas. This hung around for awhile because of the cold temps but then melting just in time for New Years. The temps warmed up and there was no snow at all in January but we had significant rainfalls. Then there is today. Last night and today is a blizzard or at least blizzard conditions. There's been about 36" of snow here. I went to put Bratley out this morning and found the snow a bit high for him. He stands a whopping 13" off the ground so I had to tunnel a path for him to go through to do his business. We are actually shut in the house today with drifts at the doors up to the 5' high mark. The area is a wonderland of snow. So very pretty. It won't last though. The temps are, believe it or not, in the low 30's and are expected to climb into the 50's by midweek.

Bob wants to take pictures today. The snow is still falling and add the snow blowing and clinging to everything, it is quite lovely out there. Maybe, that is if we can get out of the house, and I'll add them to this blog. In the meantime, it is Sunday and we're home. There's no need to be out in this and I'm all for that. There's plenty of food in the house and so far, we have electric. Our biggest concern is having a path for the dog to be able to wander outside some to do his thing.

The pictures shown were taken with the Cannon Rebel.