The Winter Storm of 09 and memories of my childhood

I haven't posted anything for a while as one, I've simply been too busy, and two, I'm still getting in to blogging. Our area just went through our first major winter storm in quite some time and thankfully, we have power at the house, food to eat, and I have been safe going back and forth to work. I can't say the same about others. After 4.5" of snow and another inch of rain and ice, about half of the people in the Tri-State are without power and many are not expected to have their power restored for up to five days. The kids have been out of school all week and are starting to suffer from cabin fever. I have watched them bond a bit this week with all three laughing and having fun with each other. I have also witnessed them pick at each other and try to make each other upset. Almost every time this happens, some one ends up crying or hurt. I so wish it could always be happy times, but know that it's not humanly possible to be nice 100% of the time.

I truly enjoy the snow, and have wanted to see a huge snow for quite some time, but I can live without the ice. I have always been interested in the weather and hate to see when the predictions for a decent snow are wrong. This time, the snow was beautiful while it fell and afterward for a couple of hours, but then it turned to sleet and ice. This changed our yard to a literal sheet/block of ice. I have never seen anything like it before. I was able to pick up a piece of ice and slide it all the way across the yard and in to the road, like skipping pebbles on a pond, without even leaving a trace on the ice in the yard. The sound that the ice made when walking on it was like smashing a hollow melon. The kids loved it. They too were as much amazed as I was.

This storm allowed me to go back in time, to when I was a kid. I remember vividly snows of the late 70s and early 80s. Real snows. When we would get a foot of snow in a day and my dad would go out and shovel our driveway so that we could get out. The snows were always so bad that they were inevitably followed by floods, sometimes covering our bridge and either flooding us in to the neighborhood for a few days or chasing to my grandmother's for a few days. I remember like it was yesterday dad's truck and how he was always there to help pull people out of ditches with the large chain he kept in the back. I remember how much it hurt him to get rid of his truck as well. I remember going out to play in the snow and coming in to a cup of hot chocolate - Superman hot chocolate. I can still picture those boxes. Thanks mom and dad for memories.