I'm stealing the title from Indigo Bunting. Because when she said it, I thought to myself, "that's exactly what it's been."
In St. Louis, we don't always have true winters. Sure, it gets cold, we usually have a bit of snow and a bit of ice and some warm January days when you think maybe you could get the shorts out...and then two days later it's back in the parka you go. My friend Mary from Kalamazoo says that's the problem with St. Louis winters. You never really embrace them--they are hesitant, just out of reach. In Michigan, or Chicago, or Vermont, you hunker down and settle into the idea of winter. Not here. We keep trying on spring for size or wistfully looking back to autumn.
Not this winter.
I don't know what our snowfall totals have been but they are above average. Way above average. When I walk across my front yard, where of course there is snow, I don't sink because there's also 3 inches of sleet there. Do I still have grass? I don't know.
It is also cold. Today's high is 17 and getting down into low single digits tonight. This has been pretty typical: snow once a week and some other minor precipitation and a cold snap. I miss the St. Louis standard of snow on Monday gone by Wednesday.
The street is a sheet of ice. The kids aren't playing outside anymore. They are snow fatigued. We've sledded and built snowmen and forts and taken photos and gone to the park.
We're done.
Sunday's high claims to be 50. I'll believe it when I see it but I hope I hope I hope.
3 comments:
a parent said at chess practice last night that last year's snowfall equaled that of the 5 years preceding it, and this year is double last year ... already. before the obligatory on-the-daffodils storm.
My kids aren't really done, but I am. something about not being sure where my wheels will land bothers me.
Yeah, the street is a sheet of ice. That is no exaggeration. And some twit laid on his horn behind me last night while I headed down the street (a slope as well) going 5 miles an hour.
I hope you get your warm day today. We successfully drove to Portland yesterday—a 5-hour drive and no snow! Such a relief. But trying to avoid the walking on ice all over the place here.
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