It snowed. A whole stinking bunch.
All day long, frozen white crap came hurtling out of a dreary gray sky. Every stoopid flake is still out there, too, all 10+ inches, screwing everything up. The newly landed snow has no intention of melting, either, it’s in no hurry to leave. It’s only purpose, it’s raison d’être, is to make our lives grueling and hugely inconvenient. I loathe snow.
Yesterday morning, at the height of the snowstorm, I sat hunkered in my snow-covered car on my way to a funeral. Those events aren’t optional, you know, there is no rain date; they’re milestones. You go when they’re scheduled. So I did. I inched and crept along for miles, hunched over the steering wheel, squinting to see through the churning wall of snowflakes and fogged up windshield, following in the rutted tracks of other, previous travelers. That trip was as close as I’ll ever come to driving a boat. I’d no traction whatsoever, no braking ability — the car slid and slewed over hill and over dale. It was nothing short of nerve-wracking.
The driving was bad, of course, but wearing eighty pounds of clothes was worse. I happened to pass a mirror and, I’m not kidding, mistook myself for Sam Kinison. Oversized, flapping black coat, sweaters and turtlenecks and boots and mufflers, big, fat gloves. The only thing missing was the goofy headgear. Uncomfortable doesn’t begin to describe my state of being. I was trapped far beneath too many layers of clothes. Heavy, thick layers. It required a concentrated effort just to move.
Try being pleasant and sociable when you’re miserable, I dare you. All I could think about was peeling off my clothes and busting out of my straitjacketed confinement. Or maybe it was closer to being hog-tied. Well, whatever it was, I longed for the freedom of sweat pants and a loose-fitting shirt. Nothing more. Maybe some socks, but that’s it.
You know what I miss? Shorts. I adore shorts. They’re so wonderfully liberating and I feel deprived of them during these terrible, dreadful, long months of winter. I want to quit being a puffy, waddling cartoon character and go back to my usual freewheeling clumsiness. I’m ready to bring on the Band-Aids. Hurry up, springtime.
copyright © 2019 the whirly girl
the whirly girl 
10 responses to “: how’s this for a national emergency? :”
Do you know what, just the thought of snow has me reaching for my toboggan?I’m lying, of course. No, I lived every awful moment of your wonderful post. Mind you, it does look nice on Christmas cards …
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Why, thank you, Dave❣️ And, I agree, snow is a lovely thing on Christmas cards. It’s even fine on Christmas. The other 364 days it should be banned. This stuff will be around until May. There’s so much of it, it’s creating its own weather systems and still more is in the forecast 😳
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You know, it’s enough to make one wish we had some say over the weather … hang on, turns out we do. Something about not turning our heating up so high … can’t win, can we? Stay warm :)
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Aaarrgghhhh, right? Pull up the blankets and put another log on the fire, winter’s only getting started 😵
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It’s remarkable but, here we are mid January and I think I have only seen snow accumulate once. It must have been about a month ago. We have been in a deep freeze, though which requires dressing as you describe. We were out and about and my husband hit the break hard. I kind of slid partially out through the bottom of my coat and was hanging awkwardly trapped by my seatbelt. I was flailing like a whale on a beach. So awkward. Since then I have been taking the big bulky coat off in the car and throwing it on the back seat before I buckle in. It’s an improvement.
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You’re absolutely right! Sometimes I refuse to even put on a coat. I’m sick to death of all the preparation. I mean, getting ready to go outside — with the hat and long underwear and mufflers and giant coat and all — takes longer than the stoopid errands. And there’s still weeks of this yet ahead! Aaaaarrgghhh.
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I am with you and today we only got a dusting of snow and I even hated that.
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Isn’t winter a bully? The brutal cold, the wind, and the short days are punishing enough on their own. Snow is just piling on 🥶
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Hate it and we are supposed to get a big storm this weekend, ugh.
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Here, too. Days of snow, freezing rain, freezing drizzle, and — get this — frozen fog⁉️ Wake me when it’s May.
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