Weather Escape

I remember that at the time that it happened, and this year, too, I lamented all the snow that we got last winter and that hung around on the ground for far too long, along with the attendant cold.   And I was by no means alone around here in having been haunted by it as this winter drew near.

But I didn't pray for a winter this year that would be more comfortable for my aged bones, in the ordinary sense of praying.   I just hoped.

And lo and behold, aside from consistent cold, with almost all the mornings dipping below freezing, so far we've been leading a charmed life where the snow is concerned.

Just this week a real blizzard, which I can't remember ever having gotten here and didn't get even last year -- just a lot of snow but no wind -- hit a large part of the U.S., especially in its midsection, but the storm swept past here to the north, up into New England and Canada, where it's been causing a lot of problems and the loss of the usual billions of dollars.  And all we got was one night of light rain and another day of some high but not disastrous winds, with not a flake of snow.

Yes, I didn't pray for such relatively easy weather.   I would never do that.

But I do know the cause of our good fortune.   Wife a few weeks ago got carried away and  bought online a fancy snow rake, a really fancy and stout push broom, and a fancy snow shovel.   I told her that that meant we would get no more snow this winter, after the one we had already had just before Christmas that didn't amount to that much.  Naturally she said that was fine with her, and it would mean those implements had done their job after all.   And so it has worked out.

We all know that there's still plenty of time, though, for something tough, but I believe in the essentially benign nature of February, a month so close to hearing the birds start singing their chorales.   After all, not for nothing is it Rainbow History Month!