TheBanyanTree: snow, snow, and more f'ing snow

[Julie Anna Teague]

Quoting Laura <wolfljsh at gmail.com>:

> Vancouver?  You can come get your snow now, we're finished with it!

I hear you.  Snow, snow, and more snow here.  Schools have had six snow
days at this point.  They'll be making up days at the end of the year
this year, which irks teachers and kids alike, because every sunny,
blue sky, 75 degree day in June that is spent in school is pure torture.

We have shoveled our long driveway and walk at least ten times this
winter.  Shoveling gets old.  Winter gets old.  I'm getting old
fighting my way to work on slippery, slushy streets in a car that is so
dirty at this point that I can barely see out the windows.

The only saving grace is that I've come to enjoy my winter runs.  Yes,
my muscles hurt more in the cold, and sometimes my throat and lungs
feel like they are on fire.  But I get this really good feeling that
has something to do with conquering the elements, something to do with
the hushed sound of running on snow, the beauty of the bare trees and
stalactites of ice, the way my cheeks bloom red and warm when I come 
inside, like when I was a kid who'd been out sledding all day.  I feel 
that pink-cheeked kid in me.  I feel more accepting of whatever 
conditions are thrown at me.

I just got back from being in sunny, tropical Mexico for week, landing 
in snow, digging the car out of a week's worth of snow and ice in the 
tundra of long term parking.  I was starting to feel some winter 
despair over all of it.  And then, while I was out running in the snow 
and slush around campus, I saw some joker coming down the sidewalk on 
cross-country skies.  He was smiling like all get out and I had to 
smile back and laugh a little.  Because that's really all one can 
do--drown the blues with a little humor, a good sweat, some warm soup.  
Spring will come.

Julie