First winter storm brings Christmas card beauty
The first storm of the season hit Tuesday night dropping nearly six inches of snow at the Maurer homestead. It was absolutely beautiful outside as I watched the sun come up Wednesday morning – pristine and white – at least until plowman Brent arrived and proceeded to clear the driveway and part of the front yard. Now we even have some green grass showing in places.
All that Christmas card beauty always comes with a price.
Jack spent most of the morning in his orange marshmallow-man suit cleaning up around the house with the snow blower and came in breathless to tell me it is very heavy and wet! Great for building snowmen. I’ll just bet the area youngsters are loving it!
Kids always know how to have fun in almost any weather. On a brief foray out back this morning I could hear the Hofweber youngsters across the river having a high old time in their back yard.
As a youngster, I can remember some winter days up around home in Roscommon when the snow was nearly higher than I was. We were always building snow forts and using old lumber as a makeshift roof. When we tired of that, a huge snow bank made a great slide with an old inner tube or even some cardboard. Even a coating of ice was welcomed and I would dig out my skates and cruise up and down the driveway. In the garage there were snowshoes and skis hung up on the walls and between December and March they got a lot of use.
I don’t remember many winters when there wasn’t an abundance of snow to play in and when I had playmates to share the fun, I could stay out there half a day, or until my toes and fingers completely lost all feeling and you just had to come in and ‘warm up’ again.
These days, most of my fun is the ‘spectator’ type and when they are here, watching the grandkids out there provides loads of entertainment.
Our driveway is clear now, but the roads out here are still snow covered and slushy, Jack reported when he made a maximum speed 25 mph trip into town around 11:30 a.m. Hopefully by the time I need to head that way, the plows will have already been down the road to clear away some of the mess.
Meantime it was a perfect day for homemade soup so I threw some together for our “dinner” which we have at noon during the week when Jack works the afternoon shift. Working at home certainly has its advantages sometimes and I may even postpone any trips at all today. It is much more fun looking out than venturing out.
All of the area schools must have agreed with me. They are closed today (Wednesday) and if the weather reports are accurate, always a 50-50 proposition, they may be closed Thursday as well. Predictions are for more of this lovely white stuff tonight.
Although the snow has stopped for now and the snow is already melting, the wind out there is now making the pine trees around the house sound like traffic on the highway. I don’t think it is over yet either.
The National Weather Service has posted a winter storm warning for Clare and Isabella counties until 7 a.m. Thursday. A winter storm watch remained in effect for Midland, Gratiot and Montcalm counties. The most snow was reported in Mt. Pleasant at six inches, and although I didn’t go out to measure it, I’m pretty sure we got about the same amount here.
