Snow and Ice

I'm now discovering that I've never really experienced a true, blue, Pennsylvania winter.  The one where it snows, and then it snows a little more, and then a lot more, and then an ice storm hits, sealing winter for what seems like forever.  I grew up with the notion of black ice.  The real reason that we had snow days when we only got an inch of snow.  Black ice was this mysterious, dangerous, sneaky son-of-a-bitch that would come out of nowhere, force your car off the road, and bring down power lines in it's path. 

Black ice ain't got nothin. 

Black ice is just stupid.  And really, an excuse for a snow day.  

See, ice here isn't shy.  It's like, bam, you see me? I'm going to be here for awhile.  It's like Platinum ice.  Shiny, hard to damage, and expensive.  It grabs hold of everything in its path.  Its like nothing I've ever seen.



Winter is starting to get to me.  Sunlight is scarce, which forces us inside.  I started to compensate by bundling up, buying puppy snow boots, and forcing myself outside.  Which was all well and good, until the ice came along.    


Snow:

Snow is gentle.  It's calming.  It falls slowly onto the earth, and hushes everything in its place.

Ice:

Ice is harsh.  Its pushy and noisy. 

Snow:

Ice:

Snow calls for adventures.  It says, hey put on your boots and your dog's boots and take a walk.  You'll burn more calories with me.

You'll see some really cool things.  You'll walk all over the place.

You'll even be so inspired, you'll build a snowman.  With a boutonniere.

And your muscles will hurt, but it will be a good hurt.  A kind of wow I really seized the day kinda ache. 



But Ice.   It obviously doesn't want you to frolic because it covers every inch of your path in it's frozeness.

Ice is like:  what are you doing outside?  Didn't I warn you with my shiny appearance? With my dagger-like icicles?

Ice creates a crunchy, shattered walk, that forces you to look down and watch where you're going, rather than what's around you.

Cause it's slippery as hell too. 

Sure it's pretty. 

But, it's miserable. 

It makes snow-loving puppies miserable. 

Translation: I hate ice.

It was funny to watch her slide all over the back yard. Honestly, like Bambi. 

 I had to intervene several times as she got to the edge of the ravine, as I had this premonition of her falling over and me going after her because and yelling for K to help us.  Like the pudgy neighbor boy who played in the ravine two winters ago, and was screaming for his mom to help him out because he couldn't move his pudgy legs fast enough.  Seriously, it was like two feet deep though.  Kids these days give up too easily.  And I'm not going to admit that we pulled the blinds up and laughed at him in our pajamas, to the point where we were tearing up because it was that funny. 


 Now don't get me wrong: I'm not a fan of snow either.  In fact, you may remember last February, when I freaked out with the amount of snow we got.  I couldn't open the door without it falling inside.  I like my snow on the melty side.  Slushy even. 

But, compared to ice, snow is a wonderful thing. 


For now, we'll continue to hibernate. 




I really miss Spring.