Weather Or Not

Man, this weather just kills me. On Monday, you didn't really even need a coat. The promise of spring was in the air. A pleasant breeze kicked up to a gale at times but who cared? It was warm outside!
On Tuesday, they said it was going to be an awful ice storm. I cancelled a lunch date because of it. I stayed in all day. Well, it came all right...at night!!! And it is still coming now. First the ice they promised now covered in a layer of snow. Oh swell, more snow. Just what I dreamed of.
It is picturesque but driving will be a challenge if I want to get out of the house.
I have an ongoing affair with snow. Sometimes I love it. Last week the snow was so beautiful that the trees around our house were breathtaking. They looked like something out of a movie or a picture book. I was snug and cozy inside the house. It stayed like that for a couple of days.
Sometimes I hate it. I always hate it when I have to drive. Add ice to the mix and I am a total wreck. You never know when a patch of ice could be hiding and you start sliding. You never know when an innocent turn is going to become a slide. Stopping at a light could mean slipping into the intersection. I know the rules about steering into the slide. I learned that a while back the hard way. One time on my way home from school I was turning onto Babbit Road and the car started slipping...panic clutched my chest. It had never happened to me before. So I turned the wheel into the slide... except not. I turned the wheel the wrong way as I was sliding and the car spun completely around and was facing the other direction after crossing three lanes of traffic. Lucky for me, the other drivers were safe and paying attention. Once I realized the car was steady, I continued on (in the wrong direction now) as if I had planned it all along. I was just so grateful the kids weren't with me. They would have been terrified. So that is how I learned what turning into the slide really meant.
When I was little I loved the snow. I remember when we missed school for a whole week when I was in Kindergarten. In my little head, I thought we were home for a month. It was the kind of snow we don't get anymore. Deep and fluffy--the kind you wanted to eat with a spoon! I know I could go out and walk in the piles Daddy had shoveled so he could get out of the driveway. I made snow angels too. I can still feel the cold stinging my cheeks and the rough scarf against my mouth. It is one of the few things I remember from way back then.
Now I hate being out in the snow. It might be all those years that Brian was a paperboy and he and I had to drive through the snow (no matter what) to deliver the paper. We got stuck in banks and it took us forever to deliver those things. I can remember rocking the station wagon back and forth to get free just down at the end of the street. And it was so cold and windy the snow was whipping all around us. So near and yet so far!!
I think the reason I don't like winter and the snow anymore is because it rules our lives. If it is too cold or too snowy I stay put. That doesn't happen the rest of the year. In fall, spring, and summer I rule not the weather!!