It is finally just about Spring!
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But, Lyn, you say, Spring started back in March.
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Yes, I saw the calendar. Â
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But let me tell you, I live in the northeast. Â And “Spring”, as far as I’m concerned, starts when you can go outside without a coat.
Or possibly when the daffodils bloom.
Which my brain suggests is always Palm Sunday, even though that’s not true.
We had a storm this weekend!
I think itâs possible that, even if you didnât live in the region hit by Harper, youâve heard of the storm that hit this weekend.
It was one of those âthe snow just keeps comingâ sorts, and then, when the snow had settled down, then came the wind. Huge gusts.
We were lucky: we didnât lose power, we didnât need to leave the house. We were warm and cozy, or at least tolerably warm (Depending on which end of the house we were at).
This morning, around 6 a.m., I woke up to a silent house, a blank display on my alarm clock, and a cold nose.
Last night, while we were making dinner, I got the robo-call telling me that my university job (which ânever closesâ and has closed twice in the two winters Iâve worked there) was closed today.
I got out of bed, encouraged the fire, grabbed my phone, made sure it was on airplane (we donât get cell service here in the boonies and it just kills the batteries), and went back to bed.
Itâs noon now, and the power is still out. Soâs the landline, so I canât – without walking out into the middle of the street and praying â call NYSEG to find out how long they assume the power will be out.
I made House Thorne oatmeal on the wood stove, and T. made drip?? coffee with a filter stand. We had toast â I finished a loaf of bread last night â at noon, and weâve got water for tea heating up on the stove. Itâs 74F in the living room, 69F in the next room over, and probably 65,64F in the kitchen (we donât have a thermometer in there). So weâre in pretty good shape.
Of course, weâre in The Rather Rural, so we donât have running water, which is a bit of a pain. I âtook a bathâ by heating water (on the wood stove again) and sitting in front of the stove to shave and such things. It helped, but itâs no proper shower. And we might be out of gallons of water sitting around by the time the power comes back on â but thatâs what theyâre for, so hey.
Itâs kind of nice, in a âI miss my internet people and I canât play with my dragons and what happens when my laptop loses powerâ sort of way. Itâs quiet â âtoo quietâ â since thereâs no fans, no furnace, no traffic, nothing but the wind and the water heating on the stove, T. talking to himself and reading the book out loud on occasion.
Itâs the weird feeling, of âweâve got thisâ combined with âbutâŚâ Mostly âbutâ being that âI miss my people and I really want a showerâ sort of way.
Also, Iâm not 100% sure what weâll have for dinner, but I have a feeling it will involve rice, be cooked on the wood stove, and hopefully not involve opening the fridge or freezer.
Well, at least work is closed and I donât have to worry about calling in. đ
(Yes, I find it a little amusing that I have a âBlizzardâ Icon. Itâs from a setting!)
So, we spent the last two days snowed in, how about you?
The last time I can remember that a major storm was supposed to hit NY, with all of the bells and whistles and a name, was Sandy – the hurricane, which totally ignored Ithaca except some rain and went on to devastate NYC and New Jersey.
To be honest, I was expecting more of the same from Stella. Ithaca just doesnât get snow most years, not like Rochester or Buffalo do (those giant inland seas dump a lot of snow on their citiesâŚ)
I figured Iâd get up Tuesday morning and thereâd still be grass visible.
As a matter of fact, when I woke up at 2 a.m. Tuesday morning, there still was grass visible.
Not so much by 6 a.m.
Definitely not so much by mid-day.
At noon â long after Iâd decided to work from home â the campus closed for 24 hours. Which then extended to 4:30 Wednesday.
By 6:30 Wednesday weâd dug out the driveway.
I did work from home for partial days both days. But I have to tell you, the little kid in me is still running around going âsnow day! Snow day!â
I think the cats were happy to see me go back to work todayâŚ
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So⌠I like winter. I actually do. The layers of clothing, the cozy feeling in front of the fire, hot cocoa and marshmallows. I like it. Yes, thereâs also shoveling, brushing off the car, taking twice as long to get to work, hauling the firewood. But thereâs always things like that.
What I like most about winter is the feeling of hibernation. You can spend an entire weekend or two just not leaving the house, and it seems perfectly reasonable. (Winters that I donât get this, I get a little cranky, actually â long warm winters, winters without enough snowâŚ)
(In my case, âenough snowâ is gauged on a chart involving feet of snow, not inches, because I grew up on Lake Ontario, where the snow comes not in snowfalls but in giant snow dumps.)
This weekend, last weekend, I donât have that much to blog about â because we hibernated. The weekend before this most recent one, we didnât leave the house at all. This weekend, we got take-out (Nobody delivers to where we live) and went grocery shopping.
Exciting, right?
Very restful.
We fixed our stand mixer – it needed a new worm follower gear (I used to play White Wolf/World of Darkness a lot; the urge to think of that as a Wyrm Follower is strong), so we cleaned it out, replaced the gear, and packed grease into it.
We vacuumed the stairs and the hearth – we have three cats and heat with wood, making both of those weekly chores.
I made a bit loaf of bread and we ate Chinese take-out leftovers all weekend.
The house looks a little cleaner, my wordcount looks amazing, and all in all, I feel refreshed and recharged – never mind Daylight Savings Time, grumble grumble.
And thatâs why I like hibernation. I get some quiet time, I get some stuff done, and there is very little that has to be done.
Spring is coming soon, and that will change the whole equation, but until then, Iâll enjoy my time trapped inside by the cold and the snow.
Stay warm, everyone. Weâve got a little more hibernation left.
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Autumn is here, in fact as well as in name.
I can tell not only because my apples are coming ripe and the grapes in my hedgerow are sweet and full, not only because every store is selling pumpkins and my dash is full of Hallowe’en, but because between Thursday and Friday the temperatures dropped precipitously.
Both highs and lows are 10-20 degrees F lower than they were at the beginning of last week – from low 80s and low 50s (28°C/12°C or so) to low 70s-> mid 60’s down to mid-40s at night(18°C-4°C or so). It came on literally overnight, and here I am, hoping the chimney sweep and the furnace check-up guy get here soon. Brrr!
In the meantime, we’ve been chopping brush to burn, hauling firewood into the house, moving firewood around the garage… cleaning the garage so we have room for the firewood (that’s mostly T)…and pulling the gutters down on the short front of the house.
(Our house has two sections: a one-story section that houses the kitchen & utility room (and dreaded foyer) and a two-story section with the rest of the house.)
The gutter was… interesting. When we pulled down the rotted board BEHIND the gutter, we found about a jillion dead wasps nests, some dead wasps… and a skeleton mouse. Yay nature~
Autumn is here, ‘though the leaves haven’t started to change yet. Home repairs are going into overdrive in anticipation of the cold that’s coming, and the cats are growing an extra coat of fur for the winter. “Winter is coming,” Oli insists, as he devours an extra helping of food.
“Winter is coming,” I agree, and stack some more firewood.
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Trying: http://amandaonwriting.tumblr.com/post/46236818204
The weather said rain, rain from 5 p.m. on. The sky said rain, heavy clouds hanging overhead. The air said rain; it dripped with moisture, making the moderate temperatures seem hotter, stickier.
And yet it would not rain, will not rain. It sat sticky and icky until sunset, when the drop of temperature brought some relief. And still, the promised rain, the threatened rain, will not come.
It rained yesterday, of course, heavy thunderstorms that knocked out roads in some areas and flooded downtown Watkins Glen. It rained Friday, a wild storm that turned Lake Ontario muddy. It will likely rain tomorrow.
But today, today it will not rain.
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“Why does Ithaca hate Christmas?” my friend asked, as our already-delayed Christmas visit was delayed YET Again due to impending bad weather and a lack of salt (Surprising; I didn’t know they actually salted the roads around here. (that’s slightly tongue-in-cheek, but we’re not all THAT good at clearing roads in this area.))
“Visit Ithaca Go see the Keys!” Ithaca’s tourism site said last week.
And I can’t say I blame them. We’re up to our chests in snow, we’re out of salt, and – until today, where it’s going to be ~31-33F – we’re freezing.
I mean, don’t get me wrong, it’s beautiful here. A Google Image Search will tell you how pretty a frozen waterfall can be. And I actually like winter here – it’s a nice time to sit inside and get some crafting, writing, or cleaning done. It’s a good excuse for layers. It’s a very good excuse for tea and soup and warm bread.
Oh, yeah. Bread! I was going to make some of that.
You can have some, if you come visit…
…maybe in March? Better make it April or May…
I find it funny that the icon I had made for my “blizzard” setting is getting far more use for… near-blizzards.
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aoifes_isle asked: Snow, love it or loathe, and why.
That is actually an immensely complicated question!
Okay, so I grew up in the Snow Belt. Snow is a major feature in my life, anywhere from October through April (average year: November through March). I took Driver’s Ed in the snow. My city twice lost power for a week in March. (Once may have been April). That was ice, though. Snow is a fact of life for me.
That being said: I hate driving in snow, though not as badly as I hate driving in freezing rain, ice, sleet, or hail (or driving rain). I don’t particularly enjoy shovelling snow, and I don’t really like slogging through snow to the garage (Woodshed) or compost bin.
But I love snow days, when the road is impassible and I can sit at home guilt-free. I love the look of the snow, bright and crisp and blanketing everything – snow, like love, covers a multitude of sins. I still like playing in snow, even if I don’t really enjoy shovelling it. I like putting Oli ((one of)my norwegian forest cat mutt(s)) out in the snow and watching him play. And I love winter clothes and a chance for layers on layers on layers.
And, I admit, I love the no-yardwork nature of winter, when one can sit back and, well, write more words.
What about you?
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Tomorrow’s topic is still open! Leave me a suggestion?
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FrankenSandy passed over the Finger Lakes yesterday, bringing with her a run on the stores but, AFAIK, no real damage in our immediate area.
On the other hand, I’ve been sick since Friday, so I’m mostly a lump. A dry lump, though.
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