What's with people thinking that my taunting of Old Man Winter is going to lead to severe weather and certain doom and destruction by heavy snowfall? I can only assume that those of you who fear to challenge winter have never lived in a place that is cold and miserable more than half the year. Because I have a little bit of advice for you: The only way to survive in a place like this is to have no fear. If you spend all summer and fall dreading the coming winter, it WILL suck. Yes. Trust me.
I know this winter is going to be a bad one. A. predicted it months ago (don't ask me how he comes up with predictions like this, but they're freakishly accurate). The national weather services have now officially forecast a brutal winter for the northeast, due to good ole El Nino*. And of course, I'll be going into labor sometime in February (Lord willin' and the crik don't rise), which pretty much guarantees at least that month will be full of raging blizzards so I have the opportunity for a really harrowing ride to the hospital and a subsequently AWESOME birth story.
So, it's inevitable that this winter will be rife with opportunities to wipe out on the driveway and flail through the snow for firewood. It sucks sometimes, and I will probably whine at some point, but I'm okay with it. Because what's my other alternative? Pleading with Old Man Winter to have mercy? I don't think so. Bring on the snow, cold, and ice, because there is no fear here.
* Can someone PLEASE tell me how to make the Spanish squiggly above the "n" in Blogger? This is annoying me.
My mom, who also has an uncanny ability to predict the weather better than the experts is predicting a long cold winter, possibly similar to "The Winter of '76".
ReplyDeleteI love winter, the snow, the cold. I do however dread it this time of year when the warm is fading away and I still remember what it's like. In the dead of winter I can't remember what it's like to have the warm sun on my back so I don't really miss it.
I too am thinking this is going to be a rough one. We had such a great summer...payback must be in order!
ReplyDeleteP.S. To get the tilde I usually just copy one from elsewhere on the web and paste it into the text (only works in the edit html tab, not compose tab).
To answer your question about the mark over the "n".
ReplyDeleteIt's called a "tilde".
Here's the code"
ñ
You MUST use the ampersand and semicolon. I tried it in the word Espanola.
It would look like this, Española on your "draft" page, but come out correctly on your post page. (I'm typing this in your comments not knowing how it's going to coming out - if html code works in comments.)
here is a web site for all foreign accent codes:
http://www.starr.net/is/type/htmlcodes.html
If ever I have a question about html codes, I just Google html codes, and you get an endless amount of links.
Re: Old Man Winter - Have no fear. Will they be filming SURVIVOR from your farm? LOL!
Re: comments about eating your little lambs - of course I knew you ate them! It would just be hard for me to eat the animals on my farm. Maybe it would be different if I had a bunch of them, but I feel I'd become attached to them. Call me crazy!
Too funny! So now I know that HTML code works in comments. So how can I show you what the code is for the tilde without it just showing you the freakin' tilde? Obviously I can't. LOL!
ReplyDeleteJust go to the website I listed and you'll find it.
I wish I could adopt your attitude. Really, I do. But there something about . . . oh I don't know DRIVING 150 MILES PER DAY to work . . . that strikes fear in my heart every winter.
ReplyDeleteI'm such a wimp.
Yah, we have winter here. Just sayin' you don't taunt a lion...or maybe you would? just kiddin'about the taunting old man winter.I see your point on not being whimpy about it. That will get you nowhere.
ReplyDeleteI love snow and cold. Give me your cold, your snow, your huddled masses. And why waste a perfectly nice winter day
having the 'man-cub' when you can go on a windy, rainy,snowy, icy day and do it in the warm hospital? ;) What would be the fun if you didn't have a 'story' to tell later to him? Like, we had to go 30 miles both ways driving on top of the fence posts , the snow was sooo deep. :)
Pat, I got over the eating the animals you watched from birth when I realized "lambs" for the table are not just little white fuzzies. They are big smelly sheep - still young enough to be called lambs, but not lamb in the way you picture.
ReplyDeleteKristin, I guess I won't torture you with stories of how I've had to take snowmobiles (or fire engines) down farm lanes to get to homebirths in the winter. Seems easier for the midwife to be traveling than the mom.
Maybe I haven't been paying attention the way I am now but I don't remember a year when the forecasts have been so wildly all over the map: http://beta.w1.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2009/20091015_winteroutlook.html
ReplyDeleteBut regardless I think you've got the right attitude, kind of a 'pray for the best, prepare for the worst'.
No Mac? Option/'n' key on a Mac.
You don't need code :-)
ReplyDeleteHold down the alt key, then on your numeric keypad, press 0241, then let go of the alt key.
ñ
==lennie==
I just worry about the MiL with her broken ankle trying to get around in too much snow. Perhaps the dogs would pull her on a sled?
ReplyDeleteI was rather worried when my first was due because we lived a 90 minute drive from the hospital, and she was due in December. I shouldn't have worried; she put me through a 30 hour labor.
ReplyDeleteWe had 50+ inches of snow last year - while my husband was confined to the couch for three months waiting for knee replacement surgery.
ReplyDeleteThe first few times with the snow blower were fun! But that wore off pretty quick! :D