What a Real Winter is Like

In our Michigan town, we lived on a street that the police used to get from the station to Woodward Ave., so it was kept plowed, sometimes 2-4 times a day.

Sounds good, huh?

Well, that show and ice ended up pushed over into the ends of our driveways.

Plow goes by at 5 a.m. Driveway full of snow and ice. Before work, you'd have to go out and dig out big chunks of frozen stuff. Come home at 6 p.m. and driveway would be blocked again by one or two....or three....plowings. Get out of car and dig driveway out again. Rinse and repeat tomorrow.

It gets old fast.

That beautiful snow drifting down? Ah, what a lovely sight. Until it turns into the grey slush that leaks into your boots. And it lasts all winter. Grey, grey, grey, a little white, grey, grey, grey.....

Winter? No thanks. I'll take the heat and humidity of Florida. I don't have to shovel 12 inches of heat and humidity out of my driveway. 24 inches of heat and humidity has never caved in my roof. I've never slipped on a layer of heat and humidity on the sidewalk and busted my tailbone.

But, on the other hand, we have hurricanes. I guess it's a matter of picking your bugaboo.
 
jujube said:
In our Michigan town, we lived on a street that the police used to get from the station to Woodward Ave., so it was kept plowed, sometimes 2-4 times a day.

Sounds good, huh?

Well, that show and ice ended up pushed over into the ends of our driveways.

Plow goes by at 5 a.m. Driveway full of snow and ice. Before work, you'd have to go out and dig out big chunks of frozen stuff. Come home at 6 p.m. and driveway would be blocked again by one or two....or three....plowings. Get out of car and dig driveway out again. Rinse and repeat tomorrow.

It gets old fast.

That beautiful snow drifting down? Ah, what a lovely sight. Until it turns into the grey slush that leaks into your boots. And it lasts all winter. Grey, grey, grey, a little white, grey, grey, grey.....

Winter? No thanks. I'll take the heat and humidity of Florida. I don't have to shovel 12 inches of heat and humidity out of my driveway. 24 inches of heat and humidity has never caved in my roof. I've never slipped on a layer of heat and humidity on the sidewalk and busted my tailbone.

But, on the other hand, we have hurricanes. I guess it's a matter of picking your bugaboo.
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Actually tbh with you.. without AC as we have here.. ( unlike the Spanish house).. I will take winter over any hot summer.. This last 3 years here in the south of England has been horribly hot unbearable tbh, and I was praying for winter to get here
 
Town.. and the pub on the right is where I go and have coffee , or lunch sometimes when I'm shopping..

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I prefer winter to summer .. can always layer on more clothes, but can only remove so much!
Shoveling snow is something I actually miss doing. Just have to take breaks and not overdo.
Fortunately, our city is very good with the salters/sanders/snow ploughs, so, driving is not an issue.
 
When I was in Quito I found people talking about seasons. Quito is right on the equator, every day is pretty much the same.

So I asked a taxi driver, his answer was "of course we have seasons, just like you do, fall, winter, spring and summer". Then I asked him what the difference in weather was. He said none, same weather every season. But still Christmas fell in winter, Easter in spring and so on. Guess it's a matter of perspective.
 
Been There said:
When I was a little boy, I remember my mom and dad grew up in NE Ohio and I lived there until I was 9. It snowed almost every day, sometimes a little, sometimes a lot. The most I remember was a 38 inch snowfall and we only had 1 day off school. Here in Virginia, if we get more than an inch, they now have “virtual” days. No more missing days.
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I grew up in NE Ohio (suburb of Cleveland), and experienced the heavy snowfall, the blizzards, the fogged glasses, slipping on the snow, etc. Don't miss it!
 
In the U.P. of Michigan our annual sNOwfall was in the 300" range. You read that right, around 25' of sNOw. Our winter season started around October 15 and wasn't over until early to mid-May. The weather has moderated a good bit in the past 10 years or so and is usually only around 180"-200". Only around 15-16'.

When I was a kid we sometimes got a sNOw day, but not often. If a blizzard started during the school day, usually only the students who rode the bus to school were let out early. If a blizzard started during the night and the drifts were deep enough, we'd get a sNOw day.

I remember one occasion in elementary school when my brother and I climbed out his bedroom window onto the front porch roof and got to school on our skiis after a blizzard that started up one afternoon and lasted into the night. It was a fine, sunny morning next day so of course we had to go to school.

Another time, in high school (which was just under a two-mile walk), I was so convinced there'd be no school because of a blizzard that I didn't finish dressing but just needed to put on a skirt. When the radio announced that classes would be held, I put on my coat and boots and walked the two miles. Got to school and started to take off my coat at my locker when I realized that I hadn't put my skirt on! Oops. Walked back home, donned the skirt, walked back to school...by then it was 10 a.m...and went late to class. About five minutes later, an announcement was made that classes would be cancelled. Sigh.

In those days girls weren't allowed to wear pants to school. We could wear sNOwpants that we had to remove before going to class.

Important note: A blizzard is a much different animal than just a heavy sNOwfall and a bit of wind. A blizzard is, well, yanno, a blizzard.

And I remember the summer that I was 8...July 4 fireworks cancelled because it sNOwed.

We lived just about a half mile from the end of the earth.
 
StarSong said:
Yup. Been there, done that. Not interested in revisiting the experience.
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lol..we do that most years have done all of my life...☃️🌨️ I look forward to it every year. Don't like driving in it because we don't have snow plows, so we have to drive on ice and packed snow.. but other than that I love winter..

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