Valentine's Day found us battling the elements. This was perhaps the first serious winter storm of the winter and we got precipitation of all kinds. It snowed, it slushed, it sleeted, and then it rained. T's school did not cancel which was fine with me, because I had a major deadline later in the week and I was hoping not to have to try to break up fights while I was working. P's school did cancel, so I didn't get all that much done in any case, but P can entertain himself for long stretches at a time, so at least it was quiet. After snowing off and on all day, it started pouring in earnest just in time for the kids to come home from school wanting to play outside.
And then it froze.
The next day, a thick layer of ice coated everything and the wind was brutal (even now, it sounds like a hostile planet out there). We had a one hour delay that morning. The ice is mostly still there, although it is thinning a bit. It's just enough to send me flying should I even attempt to run after the ever escaping Pumpkin. I used to like winter.
There are no words strong enough to describe how much I hate February. Bleak is only the beginning. In addition to Valentine's Day, of which I'm not a fan, February was the month that my father died, and on the same calendar page are his birthday and my parents' anniversary. Losing him doesn't define me the way it used to, but I still hate February.
As the words for this post were first forming in my head, I was watching my neighbors across the street gleefully pack up their van for the fight to Orlando. Sigh, this is the first year that I can remember feeling envious of them. It's not so much that I care about going to Disney World, or Sea World, or that the kids are even old enough for that kind of trip, it's that I'm facing an entire week at home trying to keep the kids occupied, when I so want to get out of here that I'd even go to Texas just for a change of scenery and a bit more warmth.
Personally, I think February vacation ought to be abolished and that we ought to get out a week earlier in the summer. If you don't ski and can't afford a tropical vacation with your family, what good is it? I know that there will be other opportunities in other years, but man, I just want to get out of here! And I don't really like feeling like this. The place where we live is really rather beautiful, and I know that I chose to live here. But I'm anticipating a bad case of cabin fever before the week is over. I don't like being stuck, frozen, in a rut.
No matter what the calendar says, February is the longest month of the year. And with the odd shift of seasons that we have experienced out here in recent years, this kind of weather could last until April. Unseasonably warm in December has all too frequently translated into unseasonably cold in June. The groundhog says we actually get a real spring this year. I'm so hoping...
Speaking of hope. If you look hard enough, there are already signs of Spring...
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