Old Man Winter has finally arrived in NE Ohio with a lake effect snowstorm that has been with us since yesterday and has dumped a great deal of snow on the area here. The forecast calls for the snow to continue its onslaught until tomorrow night, with a final tally of snowfall somewhere in the neighborhood of one to two feet of snow. Good for the skiers, I suppose, as it's the soft, powdery kind of snow they prefer and not the heavy, wet, slushy stuff that weighs a ton and is hard to sweep off the car. Still, driving has been significantly slower all day as people adjust to the arrival of winter and snow covered roads here. Salt trucks and snowplows have been out in force all day struggling to keep the roads clear. At least it finally looks and feels like a true Christmas with everything covered in a layer of white. I've even begun to load and listen to Christmas music on my iPod, specifically German Christmas music to remimd me of a holiday season spent in Europe in 1996 when my nieces were just toddlers. It was fun being with little kids at Christmas time and experiencing the magic with them, although they had their moments of whining, crying and being fussy. Now, hard as it is to believe, they are 18 and nearly 16, grown women, practically! I hope to reward myself in a few years time when I retire from my job by returning to Germany to visit my sister, brother-in-law and my nieces, if they are still living at home by then. Who knows what, if any, plans they will have after they graduate from secondary school? The oldest one, 18, has already vowed that she will not attend college as she is burned out on school, understandable, with how difficult the European educational system is. The youngest, hard to say. She may well end up feeling the same way as her elder sister by then, considering that she will be 20 years old by the time she finishes secondary school. At any rate, there is no place more magical to spend Christmas than Germany and Austria. They sure know how to celebrate the season. Every little village and big city has a Christkindl Markt from Thanksgiving right up until just before Christmas, where you can buy everything from delicious German food and drink to wonderful hand crafted items. The sights and smells of these little holiday markets are truly unforgettable. It helps if there is newfallen snow on the ground to add to the atmosphere. I would love to go back during a holiday season, but the money just isn't there and hasn't been for some time now. I hope to have my car paid off by the time I retire, which will return a big chunk of money to my income, and I won't have to pay into my retirement anymore, either, or pay for transportation to and from work, so that will make a big difference as well. I will not miss driving to and from work on days like today when the snow is falling as heavily as it is. It will be a big relief to stay in bed on days like this when we are having one of our famous Lake Erie snowstorms! But for now, I must venture out into them and do my best to get wherever it is I have to go safely. Old Man Winter has made his arrival known in a very big way, and he's here to stay for the foreseeable future, until the warm breezes blow again from the south and melt away the ice and snow once and for all. Until then, it's time to be warm and cozy as best as I can.
Monday, December 6, 2010
First big snow of the season
Old Man Winter has finally arrived in NE Ohio with a lake effect snowstorm that has been with us since yesterday and has dumped a great deal of snow on the area here. The forecast calls for the snow to continue its onslaught until tomorrow night, with a final tally of snowfall somewhere in the neighborhood of one to two feet of snow. Good for the skiers, I suppose, as it's the soft, powdery kind of snow they prefer and not the heavy, wet, slushy stuff that weighs a ton and is hard to sweep off the car. Still, driving has been significantly slower all day as people adjust to the arrival of winter and snow covered roads here. Salt trucks and snowplows have been out in force all day struggling to keep the roads clear. At least it finally looks and feels like a true Christmas with everything covered in a layer of white. I've even begun to load and listen to Christmas music on my iPod, specifically German Christmas music to remimd me of a holiday season spent in Europe in 1996 when my nieces were just toddlers. It was fun being with little kids at Christmas time and experiencing the magic with them, although they had their moments of whining, crying and being fussy. Now, hard as it is to believe, they are 18 and nearly 16, grown women, practically! I hope to reward myself in a few years time when I retire from my job by returning to Germany to visit my sister, brother-in-law and my nieces, if they are still living at home by then. Who knows what, if any, plans they will have after they graduate from secondary school? The oldest one, 18, has already vowed that she will not attend college as she is burned out on school, understandable, with how difficult the European educational system is. The youngest, hard to say. She may well end up feeling the same way as her elder sister by then, considering that she will be 20 years old by the time she finishes secondary school. At any rate, there is no place more magical to spend Christmas than Germany and Austria. They sure know how to celebrate the season. Every little village and big city has a Christkindl Markt from Thanksgiving right up until just before Christmas, where you can buy everything from delicious German food and drink to wonderful hand crafted items. The sights and smells of these little holiday markets are truly unforgettable. It helps if there is newfallen snow on the ground to add to the atmosphere. I would love to go back during a holiday season, but the money just isn't there and hasn't been for some time now. I hope to have my car paid off by the time I retire, which will return a big chunk of money to my income, and I won't have to pay into my retirement anymore, either, or pay for transportation to and from work, so that will make a big difference as well. I will not miss driving to and from work on days like today when the snow is falling as heavily as it is. It will be a big relief to stay in bed on days like this when we are having one of our famous Lake Erie snowstorms! But for now, I must venture out into them and do my best to get wherever it is I have to go safely. Old Man Winter has made his arrival known in a very big way, and he's here to stay for the foreseeable future, until the warm breezes blow again from the south and melt away the ice and snow once and for all. Until then, it's time to be warm and cozy as best as I can.
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