Coming to you live from a time when snow seems fun and desirable

A NOTE FROM THE BLOG: Yeah, so just like Wednesday's post, I wrote this one back in November when it seemed safe to assume that, by the time you read it, there would be snow on the ground in Northeast Ohio. There's not. It will in fact be a bit rainy and topping 50 degrees this weekend. Not your typical early-January weather here. So, yeah...much as I asked you to do on Wednesday, if could you just go ahead and imagine a whole bunch of snow on the ground right now, and also imagine yourself feeling sick of it and desperate for spring, I would be so appreciative. Seriously, who knew?


One of the interesting things about producing these blog posts so far in advance is that I'm often writing about future events that seem distant to me but are reality for the people who actually read these words.

Like shoveling snow, for instance. You want to know when I'm writing this? November 16th. Yeah, nearly two months ago. It's November 16th as I type this sentence, and to date I have not seen a single snowflake.

Therefore, I can think and talk fondly of snow. The fact that it's a hassle and that I get sick of it long before mid-January is forgotten for the moment. Christmas is 39 days away and snow seems romantic and fun right now.

But it's not romantic and fun. It's cold, slippery and frustrating. At least to me. And the act of removing it from my driveway -- sometimes many times over in the space of a single week -- is in no way something in which I want to engage.

But right now, there's a part of me that can't WAIT for the first big snowfall.

What's wrong with me? I know what's coming and I know I'm going to hate it. But I long for that first day or two when everything is white and clean and wintry.

The problem, of course, is that then I want the snow to go away, but it doesn't. It hangs around. For a long time. It gets dirty and ugly. And it keeps on coming.

We used to have a snowblower, but it quit working and we haven't replaced it. So until we do, it's just me (and sometimes Jared, if I'm not doing it at 5 in the morning) out there grimly shoveling away.

Ugh. I'm becoming such a snowbird. There's no doubt that I'll be traveling south for at least part of the winter sometime in the next several years. It's inevitable. I'm an Ohioan and I'm not 20 years old anymore. It's what we DO.

Anyway, I'm going to hold on to my snow naivety for just a while longer. In the meantime, please know that I feel for you guys in January who don't want snow around any longer. Really, I do, because in a couple of months, I'll BE you.