the everlasting winter

I am so, so tired of being cold.
We were cold before our trip, freezing during our trip, and still frozen upon our return.
I can't quite explain to you the gnawing numbness that builds up in one's soul when exposed to long-term chills.
Remember that whole Tale of the Sun People episode from last summer?
Well, I'm almost at the point where I'd rather be there, than here. And that's saying a lot.

The truth is, we got really lucky last year. We had a mild winter (and really, in comparison to some places in the U.S., this is still a mild winter), with only one real day of snow.
We had an amazing snow day.

AN amazing snow DAY. Only one.
This year, we've had way too many.
It was snowing when I left work last night! On April 4th! I wanted to punch the weather man, even though it's not his fault. Sometimes cold makes me angry like that.
Screw that whole Game of Thrones Winter is Coming nonsense: it's here, and it WON'T GO AWAY.

I'm ready for sandals. And shorts. And hats. And grilling on the back porch, stopping for snow cones, taking trips, eating outside at restaurants, smelling flowers, walking downtown, watching fireworks, getting tan, and being warm, even hot.

But, here we are.

This was about ten days ago...
And while I'm on an anti-cold rant, I'll admit that this was the prettiest day of snow we had.

Everything was so quiet and so frosty and still. It was unreal.
We took our time driving away, mostly because the ice under our tires was slipping and sliding, but also because we had the strange feeling that time had stopped for a minute and we should take advantage of those extra moments of life.

I'm still angry about the cold, but I thought it'd be therapeutic to share one of my favorite snow mornings.
It kinda worked.
I really do love the snow...it's always exciting and beautiful, or at least that's how I felt until last night.
The snowfall when I left work was not happy snow. It was angry snow.
It was as if the snow in the sky got mad and starting throwing unmentionables at us, instead of falling gracefully themselves. It was thick and wet and grey and slushy, lining the ground in greyish white but then immediately freezing in dirty, icy slush. It was sleesnowice. And it was awful.

So for now, I'll just remember all the reasons I love snow, and try to make amends.

In love,
Cait

snow snow snow

Last Thursday night, we almost died.

If I'm being really honest, we just almost slid into a ditch, and "almost" is kind of an extreme term for the situation, but it was still really scary.

We knew snow was rumored that night, and were really hoping for it!
Almost everyone around school left at 3pm, when the supposed flurries were scheduled to begin. No one wanted to be caught in the snow storm!
In Lynchburg, snow may as well mean Armageddon. People get crazy.

When Dusty came to pick me up, it went from a cloudy/rainy day, to this in a matter of minutes.

It was really intense.
But also really beautiful, really exciting, and really dangerous!

The drive home was precarious, at best. We couldn't see a thing. The inside of the windshield was fogging, so we had the defrost blasting on cold and were constantly wiping down the window to keep it clear.
The snow was falling in huge clumps and clogging up the windshield wipers.

By the time we got to our street, we could see a little bit better but the roads were really slick.

Lucky for us, the road leading to our apartment is dark and treacherous.

As we approached the last turn onto our street, the two cars in front of us began to do a little dance.
A dance called the sliding-on-ice-toward-death. The Slide and Ditch.
As the second car began to slide down the ice toward the ditch on the left, (while I'm screaming "NO! NO! Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, what? Whatdowedo, arewegonnadie!? We can't get stuck here!") the preppy passenger jumps out and falls painfully about 6 times, his Target hoodie flapping uselessly, before reaching our car window and warning us boldly, "Hey, that's all ice."
What a hero.

He then continued to run and fall past us, and was never seen again.
Maybe he was an angel.

Anyway, we both started just praying out loud. Really loud, panicky prayers with lots of word repetition. Somehow I don't think God cares as much about creativity in those situations.
Dusty drove the car as far to the right as he could, without going over into the other ditch. We slid a few times going up the hill, but managed not to hit any of the obstacle-course cars that were parked with their hazards on in various locations along the way.
I was very fearful of a pinball game type scenario taking place.
We reached the apartment complex, but knew we couldn't go all the way down the hill to our apartment. It was too steep, and way too dangerous.
We parked on even ground, and walked the rest of the way huddled underneath our umbrella. It had mostly stopped snowing at that point, and everything was quiet and beautiful.

I decided I hate when it's snowing but I love when there's snow. 
Is there a way to arrange that?

The rest of our night consisted of making our favorite pasta sauce recipe (the secret is the splenda!), and pretending we were fancy with some olive oil, balsamic, fresh ground pepper and pesto/butter covered toast.
And now that small salad and apple I had for lunch seems ridiculous. 

We stayed in our pajamas on the couch in front of our space heater, watching TV.

The next morning was bliss.

The University was delayed until 11am, so we enjoyed the beauty all around us while we slowly got ready.

The blizzard the night before was totally worth the snow-covered paradise we got to enjoy the next day!

Oh wait -- it's not Fall? I guess we should take our wreath down...

It took us about 20 minutes to chip away all the stubborn ice from our car. It wasn't a fluffy soft snow...it was very thick and icy, and our car was buried in its igloo embrace.

It's all melted now, although it's in the 20's today and walking outside makes me feel like anything thinner than my thighs is going to break off like peanut brittle.

The forecast is predicting more snow for Friday - and I don't mind one bit!
As long as I can stay inside while it's actually snowing, and then walk around in it in the sunshine.
That's the best.

In love,
Cait