TheBanyanTree: Nor'easter

[smack58 at nycap.rr.com]

For once it missed us!  We only got 2-inches at the most here in the Berkshires and I am glad.  Between my dead battery,(which thank God, I replaced and my car started at -31 degrees last week); my hot water heater going on Christmas day for which I had to wait till the following Thursday to have it replaced and serve Christmas dinner the next week, and then finally, during the -31 degree temp my tenant's pipes froze.  I was lucky to get the plumber that put in her furnace and new hot water heater last spring and he came right away to fix it.  She has a small boy and I hate to think of them without hot water (which is the one that froze and according to many, hot water freezes faster--whodda thunk?).  I am so tired of winter and we still have 2 months to go.  Sorry, but I count March as a winter month, even though, if we're lucky we may get a few nice days out of it.  

I ask myself why.  Why do I live here in the Berkshires still?  I'm getting too old for this.  When I came here in 1983 from Baltimore I loved the snow.  In those days Baltimore saw little snow.  Mostly freezing rain if anything.  But that's all changed.  The storm we didn't get?  They did and it was a nasty one with hail, sleet, freezing rain and then snow on top of it.  Trees down, electric out and my brother-in-law, who refuses to carry a cell phone, caught in it.  My poor sister was beside herself.  

I am the only one here in the Berkshires.  All the rest of my family is in Baltimore.  I realized last night while I was keeping my sister company over the phone that it really wouldn't matter where I lived.  Snow is a part of winter.  Storms are a part of winter--even down south as told to me by my friend who lives in Indialantic, Florida.

So I guess I should shut my mouth, continue to pay the plow man and my tenant for plowing and clearing and that plumber who so kindly came to make those repairs.  Thankfully, he will be doing some insulation soon so this won't happen again.  It is the third time in my 105 year old house and I hope it will be the last.