Tuesday, January 26, 2016

Be nice to Mother Nature

A week ago, my part of New England  (that would be the part north of Boston, but south of New Hampshire) had its first measurable snow for this season.  And it was a delight!!

We're so close to the ocean that most of our snowstorms of wet and heavy, but this one was light, dry, and fluffy!  I'm not one for making snowmen or even snowballs, but I would have been disappointed if I was, because it would have been impossible to pack this snow.  We had perhaps 5 inches, which can be a lot, but cleanup was amazingly easy, because of the type of snow it was.

Typically, we do a team cleanup effort, with one of us using the snowblower, and the other using a shovel.  And while I was shoveling, I thought to myself - 'Wow, I would take snowstorms every week, all winter long, if they were all like this.'  I then promptly gave myself a mental kick in the pants, worried that I might have given Mother Nature ideas.

This past weekend, the country experienced another snowstorm.. and this was truly a major storm. Airports up and down the east coast were shut down, airports all over the country were impacted.  And up here, north of Boston and south of New Hampshire, we had about an inch. Yes, it began much earlier than the forecast said. Yes, it was wet and sloppy and slippery.  Yes, it then got very cold, so everything that hadn't been cleaned up, froze.  But still.. it was only an inch.  It was one of those snows that is so wet, but so small in quantity, that it was actually easier to clean it up with a shovel than with the snowblower.  If not for the forecast for freezing termperatures, it would have been really tempting to just ignore it.  But even an inch, when frozen, can be a big problem.  So we didn't skimp on the cleanup.

My conclusion from these events?  Apparently, I did not annoy Mother Nature overly much, with my comment about weekly snowstorms, so she let me off easy this second time around.  Next, she's made it abundantly clear that there is much more to snow than just the number of inches -- ie, size does not matter. And finally, as I look at the pictures online - not everyone thinks the snow is a bad thing, and sometimes you should just go with the flow.


Bottom line here -- be nice to Mother Nature,.

And when you come in from the cold, you should have a nice cup of tea.
Nope, nothing on the internet about that, that's just one of Laurie's rules.

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