Friday, February 22, 2008

Snow Joke!

Last night, we had five or six inches of fluffy white snow.

That meant it was time to break out the shovel.

Shoveling snow is a fact of life in the north eastern United States. Back in England, I never really experienced more than a few inches of snow at any one time. In New York, a few hours of snowfall can leave you having to literally dig your way out of your front door.

Some people scoff at the notion of global warming when they see all this snow. I'll tell you one thing, though. Despite a load of the white stuff falling several times this winter, it's normally gone within a few hours. That never used to happen.

Even as recently as when I was visiting Long Island (back in 2002) the snow would come down heavy and stay there for days. Townships would often run out of their 'snow budget' in December and then not have the money to salt the roads when the snow came down again in January and February.

It a documented fact that 'snow days' are getting rare. Apparently the rising world temperatures aren't making winters any less cold - but they're chipping days off the beginning and end of winter - steadily making the cold season shorter and shorter.

Personally, I can't wait. Although I used to get so excited by snow when I was a kid, the novelty soon wears off when the roads are slushy and just getting to the end of your driveway is an Arctic adventure.

Look at all the snow I cleared!

6 comments:

Kitty said...

Well that's just showing off :-p x

Anonymous said...

damn, your shovel is huge, Roland. you know what they say about the size of a man's shovel.:)

Look at all that snow. You woulda laughed at the half inch we got down here in Georgia a month ago. we thought we were such bad asses, man.

Hope you're weekend is a great one!!

Katie at CuppaJoe

for a different kind of girl said...

Every weekend we've been blasted with snow here in the midwest. Based on your stellar snow removal powers (and that you can be out there minus gloves and hats!), I wonder if you contract out for this job. I'm about done with it!

Kingfisher241049 said...

You need to move south Roland, we had a few snow flurries here in Florida which lasted for all of 30 minutes. All that snow shovelling northerners have to do is too much for me now and too time consuming. I remember experiencing winter in Michigan a few years ago, and I resloved to never endure that again :)

Miz Kizzle said...

It really doesn't snow much in England? Damn, there goes another of my treasured notions. Next you'll be saying Pickwick and Sherlock Holmes weren't real people.

Roland Hulme said...

Ms. Kizzle - apparently they're up to their knees in the white stuff at the moment, but that's the exception rather than the rule.