Pet Peeve Thursday: DIE, winter, DIE!

Okay, so for two years running Mr. L and I went on a cruise to the tropics.  Fourteen (or 17) wonderful days away from winter.

Just one tiny flaw in that plan.  We choose the least two snowy winters in the past 20 years.  And boy are we paying for it now.  In early December Rochester had already beaten Buffalo and Syracuse for the most snow.  No sooner do I clear the top of the driveway than there's another inch or two of the white stuff there to bug me.

Okay, I'm spoiled.  I like temps above normal during the months of November through April.  I like seeing my driveway.  I loathe that plow guy digs up my lawn every season (while yelling YEE-HA! while he plows the dirt and grass into the parking space beside the house).

I. HATE. WINTER.

There.  I said it.

How about you?

Oh, how I hate winter ... how about you?

Here in Western NY, we've been enjoying November for the past three months.  I'm sure other parts of the Northeast have, too.   It's been great.  I mean, I can't remember such a wonderful winter.  A winter with virtually no snow.

Last year was the pits.  It seemed like it snowed every day. I was out there with my roof rake just about every day, and snowblowing the top of the driveway, too.  (We have an "L" shaped driveway.) Over the summer, we had our landscaping redone.  Weeeee!  Suddenly without all that overgrown stuff lining the drive, the plowman can get in and plow the L-shaped top of the drive.  But oddly enough ... he's only had to do it once this season.

Until today.

Winter has suddenly reappeared.  BAH!  Humbug.

I was quite prepared to go straight through until May with November weather and now ... it's all been ruined.
I'm sure that a few weeks from now Punxsutawney Phil pops out of his hole on February 2nd, you just KNOW he's going to way SIX MORE WEEKS OF WINTER.  I'm just afraid he'll say TWELVE more weeks of winter because we've skirted the issue for so long.

How's winter been where you live?

Where are all the pretty leaves?

On of the most depressing things about the changing seasons is the light -- or lack thereof -- in the mornings.

In the spring, the sun comes up waaaaaay too early.  Do I really need birds chirping outside my window and the sky getting lighter before 5 am?

But now, it's just the opposite.  Do I really want it to be pitch black out at 6:30 am (and even later come December)?

This is usually the pretty time of year.  When the leaves turn yellow, gold, red, and orange.  Only too many of our maples have blight this year (too much rain and then not enough) and so the leaves are turning brown on the trees and just falling off.  (Even our pin oak is dropping leaves like crazy and usually it doesn't do that until November.)

Is fall happening differnt in your area, too?
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Can you get cabin fever in the summer?

I hate being trapped inside by the weather. The temperatures are so miserable you can't step outside for fear of losing your life.  You don't want to go to the store because you'll have to go outside.

I'm not talking about the winter snowstorms we get just about every week here in Western New York, I'm talking the temps in the high 90s.

We're trapped inside because of winter for MONTHS AND MONTHS on end.  So when the good weather comes, I want to be out enjoying it, not trapped inside my air conditioned house.

Don't get me wrong, I LOVE not baking to death.  (I lived without air conditioning for most of my life.) But after waiting six months to sit in my screened-in porch, I hate having to be inside, looking out at the flowers and the in-ground pool (which we don't use because the water is too COLD).

This year we've spent more time inside than out on our porch.  And I'm suffering from cabin fever.

Our warm weather doesn't last long enough -- but this heat wave has overstayed its welcome.

How's the weather where you are?

What's with the weather?

I live in a part of the US that has four distinct seasons.  Except they aren't.  Distinct, that is.  Winter eases into spring, eases into summer, eases into fall, eases back to winter.

Right now we're a month into spring and the weather doesn't know what the heck it wants to do. (Maybe that's why I like spring least of all.)  It can be rainy, snowy, windy, sunny all in one afternoon.  Or it can be incredibly hot.  Eight years ago we went to a wedding on March 30th and it was 82 degrees.  The next day it snowed.

The calendar says it's spring, but my furnace will probably be chugging along every night right into June.  (One year we were still running it into early July.)

Once summer finally arrives in July, it keeps going into October.  I like that.  Warm days, cool nights, right into mid-October.  Winter--forget it.  Ick, Ick, Ick for months on end. And then we're back to spring and the weather doesn't know what it wants to do again.

So, what's your favorite season?  And do you have a beef to share today?

Sping?

Look what came up in my yard!!!


The first snowdrop of spring.  Weeee!  It's really going to happen!  (Although not quite soon enough for me.)

I know some of you live in places where the spring flowers are already in bloom or -- heaven only knows -- done for the season!  What is it you like best about spring?

Someplace WARM

For weeks now I've been playing a new age CD called Tropical Morning (by David Arkenstone).  Except for having too many wild bird and insect noises (Mr. L complains about them), it's lovely, background music with gentle waves lapping.

Best of all . . .it's WARM.  I mean, TROPICAL.  The cover has a sunrise and palm fronds.  It's been cold, Cold, COLD here in Western NY since November.

I have been bundled up since October.

The calendar says we have four more weeks of winter, but let's be honest,it isn't going to be warm until at least May (around here, anyway), and I'll still be wearing sweatshirts until June. Then suddenly, it'll be too hot for three months.

Mr. L says we should've moved to San Diego where the weather is fine all year.  But we're stuck here in Western NY and I don't think we're going anywhere else.

Where would you live if you could afford to move/live anywhere?  (I'm thinking England, which can be just as raw. Go figure!)

Welcome to my World . . .

If you live in a snowy part of the country and have gutters on your house, you're probably well aware of ice dams.  Everyone says you have to have them, or the snow melt will wash away the dirt around your foundation, but to me gutters are pretty useless -- at least in the winter.  All they do is get choked with ice and ruin your roof.  Raking the roof of snow seems to help, but the back of my house it too tall for that, so I can only reach the roof around the front of the house.

This is what our barbecue looks like this winter.  (Note the Stalactite icicle.)



We won't be cooking hot dogs for quite a while. How about you?

Who says it's a winter wonderland?

We are not snowed in, thank goodness, but we're sick of it already.  And it isn't even officially winter yet.

Read on the news yesterday that our town will probably be above average for snow for December.

No kidding!  My plans for the day are to rake the roof, shovel the driveway (that Mr. Plowman doesn't get) and STAY INSIDE.

Yesterday I went out five times in the yard for various chores (it was garbage day, took out the mail, raked the roof, shoveled, retrieved the mail) and I couldn't get warm again for anything.  Not even with longjohns, sweats, polar fleece and a granny square afghan.
Hurry April and May!!!  (And I don't mean people.)

What's the weather like where you are?

What's with the weather?

I get my weather reports from my mother and husband.  One or the other will tell me what's on tap for the weather on any given day, and sometimes it's conflicting.  My mother will say, "We're supposed to get rain."  Husband will say, "It's supposed to be dry all week."  Why?  They have different sources for their weather reports.  My mother relies on TV, my husband on the Internet.

I must say I've learned NOT to pay attention to any weather reports because these guys LOVE to scare the bejeepers out of you.  In fact, it seems like all TV news is based on the assumption that you don't really want to learn what's happening in the world unless you and yours MIGHT BE KILLED BY IT.  Be it a bomb, a disease or -- yes, the weather.

Before TV went digital, we had a small set in the kitchen.  Nearly every night there was some dire warning scrolling at the bottom of the screen.  I must say since we no longer watch TV while making supper, our nerves have been much calmer.  When analog TV went away, so did me watching the local newscasts--and, in particular, the weather reports.

Today it's either supposed to rain or snow.  Be (relatively speaking for the season) warm or cold.  I have to go to the P.O. today.  I just hope the weather doesn't bog me down.

So, what do YOU think about the weather reports you receive?

The Changing Seasons

I always tell people I love living in Western New York because I like the changing of the seasons.
Okay, that's a lie.  I only live here because ... I live here.  It's all I know.  I wouldn't want to go anywhere else because I'd have to learn where to go to get even the basics. It could take YEARS to feel "at home" somewhere else.  (Hey, I lived in Los Angeles for a short time.  Never again!)

I love when the seasons change.  Okay, one season:  Spring to summer.  I can tolerate summer changing to fall, too.

We're heading into winter. I loathe winter.  I hate being cold.  I hate snow and ice and relentless wind that takes down trees because our utility people are too cheap to put the wires underground.  And think about it, it's 19th century technology in the 21st century.  Most of Europe has their electrical wires underground.  They're smart.  We're still stuck in the 19th century.

When I look out my window in the spring, I see things gradually turning green.  New life.  It's fun to see the changes.

When I look out my window in the summer, I see flowers--lots and lots of flowers.

When I look out my window in the fall, I look for flowers (and actually found a stunted red rose last Friday.  I don't suppose it will open, but there it was trying to bloom).

Soon, I'll see a sea of white snow.

Yup, I like spring and summer best.

What's your favorite season?