Please Do Not Read

Before you venture down this path, I ask you to heed the warning of the title of this post. Should you choose to continue, then you walk that line at your own risk. I ask you please not to pass judgment on me for I am about to use my blog, which has served as an outlet to relay my thoughts and my life to all the world, for the silly and useless purpose of cursing the weather.

I know that is ridiculous because it is something I have no control over, and there is nothing to do to make it better. I know I should just deal with it and it may even be sinful to shake my fist at the climatic circumstance that God has chosen for me to be in. None the less, I bite my thumb at thee Weather. Honestly, what the heck!?

If you are still reading this, then you must really care about me since this is a significant waste of both your time and of mine. On the other hand, maybe you care about me, but not enough to take my advice in the title seriously. That is an odd thing to ponder. I am just going to assume that if you have read this far, you have also read much of my blog and therefore must care about me. If that is the case, then you probably know that I like snow. I am not so crazy about snow that I want to move further North and get blasted by snow on a weekly basis throughout a long and cold winter, but I great appreciate 5 – 7 significant snow falls a year. When it is snowing, I get excited. I love to sit and watch the snowfall. When it is dark outside, I step away from what I am doing once every 20 mins or so just to flick on a light and see how much as accumulated, how hard it is snowing and simply admire the event for a moment. Beyond watching it, I like playing in it. Even in college I would suit up and make some homemade sled and go out and play, or jump in my truck because I love the fun of driving in snow.

Here is the problem with all of that…. I submit that there has not been a truly decent snowfall in the location that I living since December of 2005. There is one small exception last winter when we got 2-3 inches and Liz and I attempted to go sledding. Beyond that, crap, pure unadulterated crap! My frustration has been building for over 3 years, and it is time to come out. I remember in November and December of 2005 when we got 2 good snow falls in Lock Haven and a few friends piled in the back of my pick up and ventured over to a huge parking lot where we strapped a rope and crappy circular sled to my bumper and pulled people around for the time of their lives. It was crazy and fun and I loved it so much that I asked for snow tubes for Christmas. My parents pulled through and I got 2 adult sized extra strength snow tubes and I could not wait for the good snowfalls I expected to hit us in the beginning of 2006. Every time the weatherman predicted some snow might hit, I waited by the window with eager anticipation only to have my spirits crushed by a measly 1-2 inches. The winter passed by and the snow tubes remained in their original packaging. The frustration had starting building then, but I was able to put it aside until the next year.

Unfortunately both snow tubes popped while using them to travel down the Yellow Breeches a few times over that summer. When winter hit again, all I could hope was for a good snow before mid December since I was going to be leaving Lock Haven and the people that originally joined me for those wonderful days in late 2005. Alas, the frustration mounted even more as we got jack by the start of 2007. By then, I thought the frustration would go away. I started working and wouldn’t be able to enjoy snow days anyway, but then things took a terrible turn for the worse as a new age came upon us: “The Season of Ice.” Seriously, what is going on with this ice malarkey? From Jan of 2007 to March 2008 I have only seen light dustings and freezing rain. In that time period I completely obliterated 3 scrappers trying to pound my way trough the ice that was mounted on my car. I got a little more frustrated because I missed snow, but even more so at the hours, yes hours I spent chipping away at ice on my car in the 3-4 ice storms we got in that time frame. The only glimpse of joy I got during that time was the one snowfall that we got 2-3 inches of snow followed by enough freezing rain to harden the snow to the point that I could jump on it and not fall through. That was some crazy fun sledding. By this time my frustrations were starting to become vocal to the poor people that accompanied me in those harsh times.

This winter has been the last straw. It has been a little different than before, instead of small dustings OR freezing rain, we have only got some small dustings followed by freezing rain followed by rain. I have no idea what is going on, but there has been 3 separate times this winter that I have had to work hard to chip away ice on my car in the rain. I doubt anyone would disagree, that is the worth weather imaginable. 32 degrees and raining? With ice on everything? Just awful. I can’t take it any more. I am giving Mechanicsburg one more winter, and then I am out of here! I had so much hope for this last snow fall. The weathermen, if they can actually call themselves that, predicted “significant snowfall.” The next day they said 3-5 inches, but it will most likely turn to freezing rain. Finally, the eve of the storm brought the correct prediction, 2-3 inches, then freezing rain, then just rain. Why is it raining in Pennsylvania in the dead of winter?? I don’t understand, but I am frustrated! I think other people are too because I kid you not, I saw kids sledding through this painfully icy mess IN THE RAIN. Kids are so desperate to play in snow that they will put aside reasonable thinking to slide around on ice in the rain. My friends have been planning of a ski weekend this weekend for the last 2 months. We are still going to go, but this weather has tried to stop us. Ski resorts around here are so desperate that they have resorted to making their own snow that covers the entire mountain. They used to make snow to help the popular areas of the slope not get too icy and stay open, now they have to make snow for every place on the mountain because we don’t get any natural snow anymore. Then after they spend all this effort making fake snow, the weather goes and rains on top to make the conditions terrible. We would have been better off getting nothing over this crap we got this week. GHA!!

Ok, I am done. That was much longer than I thought it would be. I’m sorry if you did indeed waste your time reading all of that complaining. I think I feel a little better having that all out. I can now move on with my life and hope for a darker snowier future.