The Big Snow

This weekend we had our first big snowstorm of the winter season. At least a foot of snow fell between Friday night and Saturday night. While it was beautiful to look at, it was miserable trying to get around, especially since I am still driving on that tiny little "donut spare" tire until the dealership can get my new rim in (hopefully today!). By sheer force of will, I managed to get my car backed out of our snowed in driveway on Saturday morning and made it to the gym for my Women's Fitness class. Jason, our trainer, wasn't there, but his brother Jon was, so I joked, "What, is Jason stuck in his driveway or something?" No, he had a test to take (Jason is finishing a Master's degree in Secondary Education and plans to switch careers from physical therapy to becoming a science teacher). Jon's workouts are always creative and tough and feeling a decided lack of stamina, struggled through what was a kind of demoralizing workout because I'm slower than the other women at doing certain things. Everyone said, take your time, finish the exercise, but I didn't want to hold everyone up, so I cut short what we were supposed to be doing and went on to the next thing. I had a hard time finishing each assigned exercise in a timely fashion and began to feel guilty that I was going to somehow cause everyone to have to do less of a workout unless I did fewer repetitions than everyone else so we could get in as many exercises as Jon wanted us to do. It really bugged me that I felt like I was being a drag on everyone else because of how slow I was working out (in part to protect my injured left leg, but in part because I just felt like I didn't have much stamina to do as much as we were being asked to do). But I still managed to get in an adequate workout in spite of it all, and then crawled home on slippery roads to await being shoveled out of the snow later on in the day. Fortunately, I know a very nice man who will do the job and won't charge all that much, so by late in the day, I was able to get out of my driveway without risking getting stuck. However, the city took its time to clear my street because, it being Saturday, people were still using the on-street parking despite a mandatory city parking ban in effect until today. I called the city about it and eventually my street got cleared and apparently they were able to move all of the cars to allow the plows to come through. So now everyone's dug out and one can move about freely again. And of course, in keeping with a many decades old tradition, sledders are having fun on the big hills of front campus during this big snowfall. It's fun to see and hear everyone out enjoying the cold snowy weather and using it for winter recreation!

THE LAST DAY OF CHRISTMAS

I had planned to take down all of my Christmas decorations yesterday, but I just simply couldn't bear to do it, it being a snowy weekend, the kind we wished we could have gotten for Christmas (but no, it was rainy and in the mid 40's). But alas, I think that I will do the job this afternoon when I get home from work. I had a glass of eggnog, listened to Christmas music last night, burned some pine incense and read a book about the history of the American celebration of Christmas, falling asleep on the sofa until almost midnight. I always hate taking down Christmas stuff and packing it away for another year, because it always seems like we have it up for such a short time, but I guess that's what makes the holidays special. My brother took down the tree at my mom's on Saturday. It's always sad to see forlorn looking Christmas trees discarded out on the curbsides every January. It seems such a waste to grow a tree for 10-15 years and then cut it down only to be decorated for a few short weeks, then discard it. I know, it's a renewable source, but still, I have always found it rather sad to see so many beautiful trees awaiting destruction at the hands of a chipper. I'm sure they put the tree chips to good use, such as park walkways and such, but still, it always pains me to see it anyway. The tree at my mom's was gotten at the very last minute and labeled something of a "Charlie Brown" tree because it was a last minute purchase and one of the last on the tree lot, doubtless rejected by other potential tree buyers, but my brother has the uncanny knack of finding a beautiful tree, even at the last minute, and once decorated, they are always a thing of beauty. My little table top tree is artificial and thus gets reused every year, and if I do say so myself, it looks lovely once decorated as well. So many of my decorations are decades old, purchased when I first moved out on my own almost 25 years ago, but a few are newer, purchased at the local Christkindl Markt in Akron. Next Christmas I hope to grab a few of the old spares not used much anymore at my mom's, or some of the ones where my mom bought four of the same thing, one for each of us. It'd be nice to have something from home to grace my little tree to bring back pleasant childhood Christmas memories. But for today, Christmas at my house is officially over. All Christmas goodies are getting packed in their battered "Christmas Box" (an old box that my radio once came in and is now hopelessly battered and duct taped together), put back in my one closet, and not seen again until December.

PS - Happy 53rd Birthday to my sister Polly! And a belated Happy 14th birthday (1/10) to my niece Ellie!