Draft Day #2 - Snow it goes

When I clicked on this draft (click here for Draft Day #1 post) that was sitting on the list, I was sort of surprised to see that it appeared rather lengthy. I wonder what else it could have possibly needed? Let's see what I was pontificating about back on December 6, 2013...

We live in Central New York-where winter comes. It always comes. There may be a variety of temperatures, snowfall amounts and arrival dates, but make no mistake that something resembling winter is going to take hold of this geographical region at some point. For some reason the fickleness and unpredictability of the changeover from fall makes our family feel challenged to a big game of chicken.

When the kids were younger, there was many a year we were caught with our snowpants down by the first snowfall. Two known facts collided with mixed results: no way were any of the boots from the previous year going to fit the ever-growing feet of children under ten and no way was I going to be able to keep those children inside after that first snowfall. Whether the snow started overnight or accumulated during the day while everyone was at school did not matter. I never saw it coming and ran out for proper attire that properly fit. It almost became more of a tradition for them to spend that first frolic in the fluffy white with their feet crammed into boots that barely fit, hand me downs, and possibly mismatched mittens. It never mattered. Maybe they would come inside quicker because there feet hurt, or maybe they stayed out longer because their feet were numb.

The years that teaser snow came in October, we paid it no mind. You couldn't even really make a decent snowball out of that mere dusting that left all of the blades of grass sticking through. That was not a snowfall and therefore did not require much beyond staying inside, or just quickly grabbing dribs and drabs of cold weather gear.

This year, we actually had autumn weather and I know there must be others like myself who just sort of stopped looking at the calendar and took each day for what it was. Thanksgiving is falling so late that it has just been like a really long October, despite the fact that Halloween should have actually served to clearly mark the end of that month. Maybe it is just a really long November, and without Thanksgiving poking its stuffing out, we just think the days are passing very slowly, as if it is still the first week or so. You would also think the Christmas lunacy at every store and mall might be a sign, but since those decorations appeared almost comically early, they were easy to ignore.

I have a few bins of apples on our front porch, as well as the drilled Halloween pumpkins, all of which are now covered with snow. The garage has been readied for two vans to fit inside, but the basketball hoop is still standing dead center in front of the garage door. I typically try not to complain about someone else’s strategy for getting the garage cleanout under way, but I am pretty sure if my van is sitting in the driveway with inches of snow on it, the method failed.

Um, okay. It appears I was having some trouble beyond just monitoring the passage of time and basic calendar reading skills. Where was I headed with this? If I could decipher that, perhaps I could give this poor post the closure it deserves. I will say that this year was not the first since little feet stopped growing and fashion entered the equation that used to be more rooted in warmth. We had a family fun evening where I dumped all of the hats, mittens and scarves on the floor and insisted we keep only that which we intended to use. We shared yarns about the yarns that had been hand knit or crocheted by my aunt, mother and step-mother. It's amazing what passes for entertainment during these times.