Snow!

I can't decide if I like the snow or not. Generally I'm a big fan of it. It's very pretty and, if I decide to not be a complete weenie, it can be really fun to go out and play in. I do love a good snow ball fight or sledding adventure every once in a while.

The last couple years though, I've been perfectly content to sit inside and more or less ignore it while I hibernate. Now that I am older, snow can be very annoying. At our old house, traffic was hell if it snowed. I was expecting more of the same, or maybe worse since my commute is twice as long now, but was pleasantly surprised by how light traffic was on Wednesday, the first morning waking up to snow. I made it in to work in almost record time. It's times like these that I'm very thankful for my truck and definately not willing to part with it, even though it's hardly practical to drive a 3/4 ton lifted truck for my 60 mile round trip commute. My truck is heavy with good tires and four wheel drive. Even when I try to "test the roads" to see just how bad they really are, my truck hardly goes any where. I've never had a single problem with it in the snow (finding wood to knock on now).

Last year, when the highway that used to get me to and from work was a big sheet of ice and there were cars slipping and sliding all over the place, hitting curbs, going in ditches, stopping at lights and not able to get going again, I just put 'er in four wheel drive and wound my way thru the carnage so I could get back home. I did feel a little guilty for just going around the little old people in their Cadillac trying to make a turn on a slight incline with tires spinning, but what was I going to do?

Anyways, traffic and trying to get to work just plain sucks when it's snowing. Surprisingly, my new commute isn't as crazy bad as my old commute and I've managed to make it in in one piece, in decent time with only minor irritations both mornings that I've tried, but it still puts a damper on my enjoyment of the fluffy white stuff. I want to like it, I really do. I try to be happy when it's in the forecast and enjoy it while I can, but it's hard when I'm anticipating the hell on earth that is commuting in the snow.

I decided to call yesterday a snow day, mostly because I really was a little sick, so I did get a chance to enjoy it some. I ran outside to take some pictures during a break in the snow where the sun actually peaked out a bit. The ponies aren't so happy about the snow and were happy to come say hi to me for a minute. Cheyanne got to go out and play in the snow for a bit and I think she had fun, though she did seem a little hesitant to really get out in it much. I think she was perfectly content in the house for most of the day. She followed me around while I was out there, but most of the rest of the time she was out there I think she just hung around on the porch under cover.

Later in the afternoon the boyfriend got a little stir crazy and decided we needed to go for a drive. We had planned to get a little Christmas shopping done, but once we headed out it started snowing like crazy and it looked like everyone was trying to beat it home because there was traffic every where. We gave up on the Christmas shopping idea pretty quickly and decided to just make a little loop that would normally have taken us maybe 45 minutes. It ended up taking us 3 1/2 hours. Roads were being closed, cars were going in ditches and sliding back down hills or pulling off to chain up before going up hills. It was bad. Finally, after a tour of almost every single back road in existence between home and "town" we made it back home where 2-3 inches of new snow greeted us. Sheesh! Talk about bad timing.

I'm planning to enjoy the snow this weekend. I really want to. We still have a little bit of Christmas shopping to do, but it should be fairly easy. Hopefully I can have a little fun with the snow while it's here!