No deep thoughts today...just a few comments on 'enjoying' Winter in Northern Virginia.
As I write this, the temperature outside my study window is about 15 degrees, the wind is blowing, and we're waiting to see whether the winter storm expected to start this evening will bury us in snow and ice or fizzle out (as so often happens). Forecasting the weather around here isn't easy...we sit on a sort of fault line between weather areas, and the type of winter storms we get depends on a complex mix of arcane factors understandable only to the meteorologists. One sure thing, though, is that we'll have a better time of it than the folks in upstate New York who are digging out from under 14 feet of snow.
Agnes and I often scoff at local reactions to a little snow - I grew up in Western Pennsylvania back when school didn't close unless the snow was deeper than the bus roofs; Agnes grew up in the foothills of the Alps. For us, a snowfall of an inch or two or three - cause for widespread panic and stockpiling of toilet paper and canned goods around here - is cause for a yawn. Ice, of course, is different...we do get lots of ice storms here, which are far more dangerous for driving than snow...but you lives where you do and you takes your chances.
Winter is not my favorite season. While I enjoy sitting in front of a roaring fire, sipping a cup of hot chocolate laced with peppermint schnapps and looking out at an unbroken field of glistening white snow, I much prefer sitting out in the yard, watching the beautiful ladies stolling by in their light summer clothes. For me, the true first sign of Spring isn't the first robin...it's the first young lady in a sleeveless blouse.
I'm ready for Spring. I know it's just mid-February, and winter is just getting started, but I'm officially through with Winter. Snow, exit stage left. Cue the sun. Let's get warm.
Have a good day. More thoughts tomorrow.
Bilbo
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