It's been one of the snowiest winters I can remember in recent history. We have had light snow, heavy snow, snow mixed with rain, rain mixed with snow, snow in the middle of the day, snow late at night, sunny days with snow, grey snowy days…you get the picture. Northeast Ohio has been a snow-lover’s paradise this year.
It’s the kind of winter that is great for body shops, orthopedic surgeons and ski wear / outerwear retailers. Hardware stores have been out of salt more than they have had it in stock and small engine shops have rebuilt more snowblowers than ever. People have made a killing and gone days without sleep keeping parking lots cleared. City and County Governments have destroyed already stretched budgets buying mountains of salt and keeping fleets of trucks on the roads to keep traffic crawling along safely. Kids have had snow day upon snow day until many schools now are looking at skipping spring breaks or delaying graduations because they have exceeded their allotted calamity days.
And yet with all of that snow, we hit 60 degrees in mid February…for one brief and wonderful day it was spring! The birds chirped, the snow and ice melted and the sun felt SO good. People shed their layers of flannel and fleece and stepped out into the daylight in shirts…short sleeved shirts for goodness sake!
I took the kids to the park to get some exercise and they had a blast swimming in the snow melt and mulch puddles, literally. Our washing machine will never be the same.
It was a beautiful thing.
That evening as I listened to the sounds of the neighborhood kids coming back to life and finding treasures buried in the snow since November, I decided to sift through thousands of songs on Itunes and make a “First of Spring 2011 Mix”…it contains some Blues Traveler, some Bob Marley, Vampire Weekend and Dave Matthews Band…music that helps melt the winter blahs as the temperature creeps up. The windows were all open in the house and the music spilled out onto the deck. Great feeling. I burnt a quick copy of the mix for the car. Then for some reason looked over at my phone and saw the little green light flashing in the upper middle area alerting me to a missed call or text.
It was an e-alert from a local TV station. Winter Storm Warning for Wayne County starting at blah blah blah blah blah….instant headache. Good feelings gone. The music suddenly sounded completely inappropriate and I looked down and felt ashamed that I had put on cargo shorts. What was I thinking tempting the snowgods with this foolish frenzy of springtime activity in February. I should be punished…we all should…and we all were, by another 10 inches of snow.
Just saw the light blinking again…Winter Storm Warining for Wayne from 9:00pm Thursday until 4:00pm Friday (EST)…maybe this weekend we can build an igloo. I can make a new mix to play too...maybe some Edgar Winter and Snow Patrol...
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