Some Winter thoughts.......

We talked to our oldest daughter, Becky, who lives in Northern Virginia last Saturday (Feb 6th, in the middle of the first storm); this is a picture out her front door she had just sent me.
So I've been thinking......
I like snow when:
- I can watch it fall from inside a warm living room with a fireplace crackling and a mug of hot chocolate in my hands.
- I tromped through fresh new snow in my warm Sorrel boots or snowshoes with Rio, ( who loves snow anytime! ) in the fields and woods behind our house in Wisconsin or walked Deny (our beloved old yellow Lab) up to the lake in New Hampshire. It's so quiet and beautiful.
- I can cross country ski in it. Thank you again Feltus and Ruth Ann for teaching me to CC ski in New Hampshire. I would like to do more of that sometime.
I do not like snow when:
- you have to shovel or use the snowblower to clear driveways and sidewalks.
- having to drive in it.
- having to walk on slippery icy sidewalks and parking lots.
- the cleared roads that freeze overnight and you worry about black ice.
- after several days and it's all dirty and slushy.
- the snowplow roars down your street and buries the bottom of your freshly cleared driveway with heavy wet snow that you have to shovel by hand because it clogs the snowblower.
Do we miss it? The beauty? Yes. The shoveling? heck NO!!
It has been unseasonably chilly here in Houston the last several weeks but last Saturday was a beautiful day here; sunny and down right warm. So after we talked to Becky we took Mary and the grandkids down to Galveston to the beach. Needless to say, we had a great time! Ok, so it wasn't exactly swimsuit weather - note the sweatshirts but the kids got their feet wet and Zach especially loved it. Of course Rio probably had the best time of anyone. Anytime there is water and a tennis ball, he is the happiest of Labs.
Quite a difference from the first picture. LOL! I know, I know; I'll be singing a different tune come July and August. But last Sat. we were glad to be living in the Southern part of the US.