Mute Monday - W

W is for Winter

In Michigan:




In South Carolina:

(Pretty much the same as other times of year, except for the dormant grass)

(This was the big "snowstorm" of 2003. Note the cadets in their warmest coats.)

Not so mute addition:

While I do love the prettiness of a fresh snowfall and the beautiful trees after an ice storm, I don't miss cold temperatures, treacherous driving, and power outages. We experienced all of that in our brief trip "home" to Michigan for Christmas. Icy roads prevented our making it to my parents' house on Christmas Eve as planned, so we spent that night and most of Christmas morning in a hotel (but at least we got a hot breakfast - got to love Comfort Inn breakfasts except at Lexington Ky, which does not have make-your-own-waffles. In fact, the CI we stayed at in Michigan even had a hot pasta bar when we checked in at 9:30 at night. Above and beyond, that's for sure)

The kids loved playing the snow at my parents' house. Since they are a mile inland from Lake Michigan and right on a smaller lake that connects to Lake Michigan), they had A LOT of lake effect snow. We brought all our snow gear, plus my sister had a bunch of stuff her son had outgrown, so the kids got their now-annual snow play in without getting too cold and wet.

Then we went north to my in-laws' place. Thanks to an overnight ice storm, we woke up Sunday morning to a cold, electricity-free house. Being in the boonies, they have well water, which means you need the electricity to run the pump. The boys (Spousehole, FIL, and BIL) tried in vain to get the generator going, but it was no use. Just when they finally figured out the problem, the electricity came back on. Lesson learned: just buying the generator, having the electrician install the hook-up so you can power the whole house, and then letting it sit for two years is not enough. Fire it up once or twice before you actually need it to make sure you know wth you are doing! And that you have the little lever that shifts it from tortoise to hare (slow to fast). (BIL has his own generator and knew what to do if only they could locate the lever, but FIL-the-engineer didn't want to listen to BIL-the-graphic-artist/photographer, because really - what could an artist actually know about a mechanical item?)

Considering how my parents had told us about the pounding they were getting from snow, snow, and more snow, we were surprised to not even see snow on our trip north until we hit mid-Michigan. But by the time we reached the Lake Michigan coast, there were feet of it. FEET.

All-in-all, we were not sorry to return to the weather that passes for "winter" in the south. It's 75 degrees and sunny today. No, we don't miss winter all that much. I think I could survive quite nicely if I never lift a snow shovel or operate a snow blower again. (One of my southern born-and-raised neighbors actually thought a snow blower was like a leaf blower - lol!)