Snow Day!

It's been snowing since 6:00 pm last night. For those of you who haven't been to the "Garden State," especially in the winter, you would need to know the following things about Jersey Winters:
- It usually doesn't snow. We get blasted with a snow storm every few years and we get a dusting once in a while, but nothing trememdous.
- It is very COLD! Recently, however, our cold spells have been 20 below one day to 60 degrees the next day.
- Our precipitation usually consists of RAIN. Cold, dark, dingy, grey, RAIN.

The snow, today, is absolutely beautiful. The forecast is calling for our snow to end sometime around 4:00 pm today. The odd thing about this little snow storm is the fact that it's not little and they're considering it a Nor'easter. Winds are steady at 15 mph with gusts of 30 mph. Whew!!!

There is something peaceful and serence about snow. It's quiet! We live in the NORTH, right next to a major city (Philly) and I can usually hear the train, that's only 2 blocks away every 15 minutes as scheduled. Today.....nothing. The only sounds I hear are the wind whipping the wind chimes in the back, the occasional shoveling of one of my neighbors front sidewalks, and the intermittent car driving by on Haddon Avenue since almost everyone is off from work and/or school (with the exception of my hubby.)

The snow does remind me of the few snow storms we had when I was growing up. The first one was when I was about 4 or so. My dad was on the Ski Patrol before he moved to Jersey and he bought me little red and white skis with little yellow ski boots. I put on my blue snow suit, ski boots, and trekked outside with my skis and poles to "ski" down the little hills my dad made for me in the yard.

Then there were about 4-5 snow falls between the ages of 7-12 in which the snow plows would make gigantic mountains of snow in the cul-de-sac right behind my house. We would take our sleds and zip down those hills for hours on end, or until our fingers were frozen.

The ages of 13-15 found me trekking through the woods near our house to the old landfill. Now it had been closed for years by that point so it was completely covered with grass and snow at that point and boy, was that a trip! Again, pure pleasure of sledding in the cold, frozen, tundra of what we like to call home, New Jersey, the "Garden State."

Now, I don't even want to go out in it. There are many reasons why, including the fact that I lived in Florida for 3 years and miss the warm winter sun, it's too damn cold outside, and we'll I really have no desire to actually go outside and shovel. Ugh! So, I will continue to sit inside all day, in the warmth, praying that Craig is ok driving today, and delve into my Anatomy & Physiology studies. This time next week, we won't have to worry about snow! We'll be in Sunny Florida!!!!