Snow, rinse, repeat

*sigh*

I should have known that, by planning to move to the Keys for good this summer (if all works out), I'd be dooming this area to The Winter from Hell.

The last few winters have had really cold spells but very little snow. Tom and I have been married for over four years; not once during that time have I not been able to get in and out of the driveway at the old homestead. It helped that Tom's truck is four-wheel drive. But now the truck is with Tom at our place in the Keys and it seems that a Prius (whose brakes seem to be working very well, thank you, although I've driven it very little this year) just isn't up to the task of plowing through more than an inch or two of snow.

In 1995-96 we had a blizzard that closed city schools for over a week and county schools for two weeks. That's when I made the transition from the county school system to the city's; I gave my two-weeks' notice and didn't work again until the city schools opened more than two weeks later.

I think that we had something like 53" of snow that winter. We've already passed that and it's only Feb. 10. I last worked on the 4th, and school has been closed since then. It's still up in the air if we'll go tomorrow. Watch out, Spring Break, we may lose you.

So, yeah. The Winter from Hell. Weeks of single-digit temperatures. Snow after snow after snow. Today we have a high-wind advisory. Does it get any better than this.



ETA: No school tomorrow. Five days in a row, seven since the end of January. *sigh*

It'stoodamncold

There you have it. One word. My reason for not doing a thing.

It'stoodamncold.

It was 8 degrees this morning. Eight. Eight. Unfrickingbelievable.

Yeah, yeah, I know that it was 31 in Miami this morning. It's been in the low 40s at night in the Keys. 31 is almost four times warmer than it is here, and 40 is five times.

I'm considering retiring and moving to the Keys without a job. It's five times warmer there at night. So we won't be able to pay the mortgage. The house in WV is locked in ice anyway. No one, including its owner, can get to it anyway.






I wish I could just leave. I won't because I'm too responsible to bail. But I'll think about it a whole lot.

Quick update

Two weeks in Florida, lovely (if somewhat cooler than usual) weather, work around The Cat House, lots of FaceBook time on the Crack (and utter irritation for several days when the Crackberry network was down and no one had told me about it) (by no one I mean RIM, of course, the people who own the company), walks around our new neighborhood, observing the wildlife, playing with grandkids, floating in a warm pool on Christmas night, three days of driving seven hours a day each way (my butt cheek gets numb, okay?), living in our place in the Keys, having to leave and come home, then the little surprise of finding 6" of ice and snow on our driveway in WV, two weeks after it snowed and over a week since a minor ice storm, not being able to drive up the driveway, cracking the front bumper of our less than 2-months-old Prius, getting stuck and having to walk uphill to the house in the dark in the snow and ice and 10 degree temperature with 40 mph winds while wearing clogs because one doesn't need real shoes in Florida even in the winter with no depth perception in the dark and faulty balance on a smooth surface on a sunny day while trying to balance several large tote bags on my shoulders and falling down and losing a clog while screaming "WHY ME?" (or something like that only a lot more profane) at the cold stars as I sat on the ice without one shoe not being able to balance enough to stand up to look for the damn shoe and Zippy had run ahead up to the house and was patiently barking at the front door for someone to let him into the nice warm house while I was crying and snotting without any tissues halfway up the driveway thinking that I was going to die within sight of my own house and no one would ever find me and a bear might eat my barely-frozen carcass and it's all because I can't move to Florida until we sell our house in WV or I get a good-paying job in Florida which isn't likely this time of year (either one) then the next morning I called the guy with the tow truck who came after daylight to pull the car out of the ditch (where I almost took out the side of the new car by getting this---------->close to a huge bolt on a fence post) then dragged my crap back down to the car after deciding that I was not going back to that house until the spring thaw or June, whichever comes first then still being stuck in the damn driveway about 6' from the actual road and spending half an hour trying to get the car that six feet while getting this------->close to the For Sale sign in the ditch by the road until a nice man took pity on me and pulled me out of the driveway and I will not go back to WV until I'm sure that I can make it up that damned driveway and last night my shoulder muscle spasmed and Betty had to help me to bed because it was agonizing to move and it hurt so bad I didn't sleep well even after taking some percocet or something like that so today I went to the doctor who prescribed a muscle relaxant that shouldn't make me dopey but sort of has so I'm going to go to Betty's house and take another one and see if I can sleep.

*deep breath*

Zippy and I are living with Betty for a while.

Today's weather

Here (lifted from NOAA's website):

Winter Storm WatchHazardous Weather Outlook

Today: Snow and sleet likely after 1pm. Cloudy, with a high near 39. Calm wind becoming southeast around 5 mph. Chance of precipitation is 60%. Total daytime snow and sleet accumulation of less than a half inch possible. Tonight: Snow, freezing rain, and sleet before 11pm, then freezing rain between 11pm and 3am, then rain or freezing rain after 3am. Low around 31. South wind between 3 and 8 mph. Chance of precipitation is 100%. New ice accumulation of 0.2 to 0.4 of an inch possible. New snow and sleet accumulation of around an inch possible.


Aaaaannnnndddd at our place in the Keys:

Today: Sunny, with a high near 80. East wind between 5 and 10 mph. Tonight: Partly cloudy, with a low around 74. South wind around 10 mph. Wednesday: A slight chance of showers. Partly cloudy, with a high near 83. South wind between 5 and 15 mph. Chance of precipitation is 10%.Wednesday Night: A slight chance of showers. Partly cloudy, with a low around 74. South wind between 5 and 10 mph. Chance of precipitation is 20%.

So, where do you want to be?

Why I didn't go to see "New Moon" again today

Chester's opinion of the snow:





It's mine, too.

Finally!

Vindication.


As an adult, I've realized that I feel better when I have a tan. For most of my life, however, science has pounded into our heads (okay, so I'm a little sensitive about the subject) that sun = cancer. I've been very careful not to burn and use sunblock when I'm on the beach, but without skin color, I feel exhausted, depressed, out of sorts, you name an unpleasant emotion, I've got it during the cold months.


The article linked above explains why this happens. I have a vitamin D deficiency.

I didn't realize that vitamin D is so closely tied to the problems I have in cold weather. I don't drink milk, occasionally eat yogurt, a little bit of cheese, so I don't get much vitamin D unless I spend time outside. When it's cold, I'm not going outside, and now tanning beds have such a nasty reputation that I don't want to use them.

I feel so good when the weather's warm and I can go outside every day. No wonder trips to Florida in the winter are so enticing. I feel like I genuinely need to spend time in the sunshine.

Too bad that living in a cold climate isn't considered a disability by employers. It is a disability when one dreads the end of summer and outright hates winter. I deal with intense depression and anxiety eight months of the year, but somehow I don't think I'd be approved for disability retirement.

I am so looking forward to living in the Keys!

Look!------------>

Only one more day till spring!

What will I count down to next? Retirement? That would be a depressing number of days.

It's almost spring?

In the Arctic Circle, maybe, but here it was under 8 last night. I just didn't have it in me to check the thermometer after that.

We didn't get any snow in our neck of the woods, but the city got enough that school was cancelled yesterday. We'll make up for it on Friday, but since I would have had to be here anyway, I'm not unhappy about it.

I just could not get warm last night. My ankles were freezing. Why didn't I wear my nice, warm legwarmers? I haven't knit in the ends, and it was too freaking cold to do that. I spent the day reading breaking dawn, book 4 of the twilight series. It's so much better than books 2 and 3, but I still can't quite figure out why I keep reading them.

I ripped out my neckwarmer on Sunday and started knitting another one. The bottom of it kept rolling up under my chin, and it was bothering me, so I just had to rip it out. That meant that I didn't have it this morning when I really really needed it. This one should be good and warm, though, if I ever finish it. The yarn is doubled in this one; I'm hoping that I'll have enough to finish it. If that happens, though, I refuse to start over; I'll attach another color and keep going. It's not for looks anyway. It's the Swirl Neckwarmer and it's turning out to be nice and thick. It's hurting my hands, though, because chunky yarn doubled is tough knitting. I don't think I'll try that again.

Or frog my neckwarmer on the coldest damn day of the year.

The state has decided--for now, at least--not to offer early retirement buyouts. If I can make it through two more winters, maybe, just maybe we'll be able to spend the rest of our winters in Florida. Summers, too, but I'm all for that.

I finished the legwarmers

Whew. I thought they'd never be done! I can't wait to wear them. I still have to weave in the ends; there were knots in most of the 5 hanks I used, so I had to pull them out and will weave them in. 116 yards per hank, almost 5 hanks, so about 500 yards total. I could have knit a nice warm wrap with that amount of yarn. One of them is darker and more vibrant than the other, but since they won't be seen in public, it doesn't matter. Actually, it wouldn't matter to me anyway. That's the charm of hand-dyed yarns. I don't bother to alternate rows with this stuff; it would just drive me crazy.

I'm about 1/4 of the way through Eclipse which is book number three of the Twilight series. I roll my eyes a lot, but the plot keeps me reading. I'm getting tired of Edward's overprotectiveness of Bella, but the story's good enough to keep reading it. I haven't seen the movie yet and probably won't; once I get a book in my head (or as long as it stays there, anyway), I don't like to see how someone else envisioned it. If it's too different from my thoughts, then I have a difficult time enjoying it.

It was ZERO this morning. I'm so ready for warm weather!

**UPDATE**3/6/09 Crap. I finished Breaking Dawn tonight, and now I have to see the movie when it's on dvd. I should never say never.

At least it was pretty

Last night:


This morning:


If you look closely (click on photo), you can see some snow falling off. As the morning went on (and I only saw a few minutes of the morning before I went back to bed) it looked like little avalanches as the snow slipped off.




It's beautiful, but it's cold. And I am oh, so tired of being cold.

Have I mentioned lately that I hate winter?

If not, here's a reminder.

It started snowing about 15 minutes before I left work today. By the time I'd gotten say, 15 minutes out of town, the roads were covered and traffic was going about 40 mph; by the time I hit the mountain, it was about 5 mph. It took about 25 minutes to go over the mountain; even with the state trucks salting the road, it was terrible. Trailer-trucks and little cars slid all over the place; the rest of us crept over the mountain at about 5 mph. A trip that usually takes 40 minutes took an hour and 10 minutes.

By putting the Camry into low gear, I was able to burn an inch or so off the tires and make it up our driveway. I've never driven in weather this bad. Ever.

And I never want to, again.

I'm hoping that school will be, at the least, delayed an hour or two tomorrow. It's supposed to snow all night (a full 4" is predicted, with another inch or so tomorrow. That is, if the local weather forecasters are right. And they rarely are.)

I hear that the VA General Assembly may put together a buy-out package for us old people so we can retire up to 5 years early.

I'm waiting.

We freezed

This was yesterday morning. Last night was -10.

This morning the pipes were frozen.

Tom managed to get them thawed, so we're in business.

Heh. I said "business".

http://knitty.com/ISSUEwinter06/PATTlegwarmersocks.html

I need these, but I'm too freaking cold to knit them.

This is the life!!!

I tell you, life in Florida certainly beats life in WV in the winter!

Here it is, New Year's Eve, and the kids and I were outside in our bathing suits, soaking up the sun. The neighbor asked if the kids wanted to play with his Slip'n'Slide, then he set it up for them. December 31 and we're outside playing in the sun and water.

Sure, it's "cold" here by Floridians' standards. It's probably in the low 70s, but even B2 (for whom I knit a thick wool hat and scarf because he's always cold if it's under 80) was slippin' and slidin' and having a blast. Okay, B2 was crawlin' and fallin', as A just corrected me.

The grass is green; flowers are blooming; the neighbors are growing papayas and pineapples.

And it's December. And it's warm.

At least, I'm warm.

Four more years, or 4.5, really, till we can move to southern Florida and grow our own flowers and fruits, even in the wintertime. Unless Tom gets a job down there, then just maybe we'll be able to live in the warmth earlier.

Either way, it's in reach now, and there's hope that we can get rid of our winter clothes and live in shorts and t-shirts year-round.

I can't wait!

Autumn blues

I'm going to write about this and then try to forget it. Like that'll happen. But I don't want to go on and on all fall/winter/chilly spring about how much I hate cold weather, so I'll do it now and maybe get it out of my system.

I hate cold weather. I hate wearing coats. I hate wearing hats. I hate running to the car, shivering and swearing, before the sun comes up. I hate not seeing the sun before I go to work and only seeing it for an hour and a half after I leave work. I hate having to turn on the heat in the house and pay the ridiculous amounts the gas company will charge this winter (even though we keep the temperature around 66 degrees). I hate having to wear sweatshirt, t-shirt, sweatpants and heavy socks in the house, sometimes having to wrap up in a blanket to keep from freezing.

Poor Tom is already wearing a hat (that I knit) while we're home, and it's not that cold yet. He really feels the cold, while I'm always (almost) too warm. One would think that a post-menopausal woman would be happy with cooler temperatures. Not so in my case.

As the days get shorter, I can feel that ol' melancholia stealing over me, stealing my energy (what energy that I have), my motivation, my life. By December or January I'm ready to hibernate. I don't want to get out of bed. I hate wishing my life away, waiting for warm weather again. I feel like I'm just enduring six or more months of the year, waiting to feel alive again.

Thank goodness for trips to Florida to see my daughter and her family. Not only do I get a good dose of being MomMom (or Nanamarana, as last January), I get a dose of sunshine and warmth. Green grass, flowers blooming, trees with actual green leaves on them. Life. Sun. It keeps me from wasting away inside while waiting for warm weather at home. Even if it gets down into the low 30s at night while I'm there, I know that it won't last long, and even if I miss the nice, warm days, I know that they'll come back quickly, unlike in the mid-Atlantic states where it's winter for six months.

Thank God I have an understanding husband. It bothers him that I sleep so much, even in the warm weather, but that's my natural rhythm. Always has been, since I was born. I'm not finding that I need less sleep as I get older; for me, it's the opposite.

I've been diagnosed with Chronic Depression and Generalized Anxiety Disorder. Depression is so much worse in the cold times of the year, but increasing my antidepressant turns me into a zombie, so I just have to endure. I don't want to risk changing antidepressants; I don't have six months to live in bed while waiting for one to get out of my system and another to get in, then finding that it doesn't work well, and having to go through it again.

I will not miss the seasons. There are only two seasons I want to have: summer and almost-summer. If it never got colder than 60 degrees, I'd be a happy camper. I have to force myself to see the color changes in the leaves; I can acknowledge their beauty only after I've forced myself to notice that they're no longer green. Snow is beautiful when it's falling, but it soon gets grubby, and living on the side of a mountain isn't the best place to be in an ice or snow storm. Working on the other side of a mountain, where the roads are maintained by two states, one of which (and it changes) is always more on-the-ball than the other, is a royal pain when the roads are slippery. Tom's site never closes, no matter how bad the weather, and being the maintenance manager, he has to go in even if there's a foot of ice on the road (a slight exhaggeration). I work for the city schools, in a city where school is rarely closed due to inclement weather and only once in a while opens late. Doesn't matter. We leave home at 6 each morning, and if we hear that school has been cancelled or will open late, no matter. I'm on the way at the regular time anyway. The weather at home or on the mountain may be treacherous, but we chose to live where we do, so we have to deal with it.

I'll just have to endure. I'll have happy times; I won't mope around for the next six months. But I will complain about the cold weather, the short days, no warm sun. It's my nature. Again, thank God that Tom feels the same way about cold weather and wants to move south when we retire.

South, as in South Florida, where there's no (or maybe a tiny bit, once in 25 years) frost, where there's almost always sun (HOT sun), where most places are air conditioned so there's somewhere cool to go when it's too hot in the sun. Where we can grow tropical plants outside, not in pots that have to be dragged out in the spring and back inside in the winter where the poor things just endure until spring. Where we can see my grandkids and Tom's daughter (who was smart and moved to Ft. Lauderdale when she was 18). Where there's a beach within an hour's drive east or west.

Where maybe I can defeat this cold-weather melancholy and feel alive year-round.

One more day

Till payday--and the end of February!!!!!

I'm looking forward to brighter days and better mental health.

It's freaking cold and windy tonight.

That is all.




It had better be.

Oh please please please

There's hope

See thos tiny spots? They're geese. Flying north. And Bessie, the old mommy deer, has lost all of her winter fuzz (except that odd rectangular clump on her neck).



Dare I even hope???

rita's day off

Woohoo for an ice storm! Day off from school--on a Friday, yet. We have four days built into the calendar; so much for getting out almost a week early in June, but what the hey, it's a three-day weekend. In the dead of winter.

Even though it seems to be about 20 degrees, the rain has washed the ice off the trees (at least, the trees in sight, which admittedly isn't far). I did manage to take a few photos before it all disappeared, after sleeping late, doing a little (very little) laundry, and sitting here for two hours playing with changes to my blog. Like adding the links to blogs that I like to read. This is just a small portion of my list, but after sitting here that long, I'm finished for today.



Yes. That is a West Virginia outhouse in our yard.