Category Archives: The Great Outdoors

I’m snowed in.  I don’t know what you picture when you think "snowed in", but since I can’t actually shovel snow, and since I have a front-wheel drive car and a gravel driveway, for me it means "hm, if I back out into that my car is probably gonna get stuck".  Right now it means about 10", give or take.

Most people don’t seem to like this, but most of the time I find it incredibly comforting… I’ve been rather depressed lately, though, so I’m breaking even about now.  In an effort to cheer myself up a bit more, here’s a list of things I love about being snowed in…

1. This much snow provides natural insulation.

   It’s been insanely cold lately.  And I hate cold.  Cold makes my nerves scream, my joints ache, and even slightly cold temperatures cause all of my digits to freeze.  Cold is the main reason I left Ohio and swore I’d never come back here.  I moved no less than 4 times trying to find a place that was consistently warm, and once I found it I ended up having to move back to this place of torturous winters anyway, for financial reasons.

   In any case, it’s been cold, really cold, which has made me grumpy, really grumpy!  But snow, in sufficient quantities, provides my house with an extra layer of insulation, and with the added help the insane drafts cease and my stupid baseboard heaters can actually manage to heat the house to something resembling living conditions.

2. Snow is beautiful, especially when it’s deep.
3. It gives me an excuse to say "No".

   If I had my way, I would hibernate.  I would gather enough food for the winter, lock myself in, and come out sometime in the spring when all this nasty cold was gone and my pain levels returned to something I could manage.  Other people do not like that, though.

   Despite my uncanny knack for scaring some people away and creeping others out, I somehow still always find myself in positions that require me to socialize during the winter months.  

   It also doesn’t help that Christmas and Thanksgiving both fall during the time I would prefer to be hibernating.  There’s no way I’m gonna miss a chance, if at all possible, to go play with my nieces and nephews… I will brave all kinds of weather for that.

   But being snowed in gives me a real, solid, unavoidable excuse to back out of unnecessary trips and social events, and I love it.

4. I can look out the window and dream of building snowmen.

   For as long as I’m snowed in, I have endless opportunities to look out the window and think "Wow, it’s so beautiful.  Maybe if I’m feeling better tomorrow I’ll throw on a coat and go play in it a bit."  That never happens, of cour

5. Time slows down.

Something about being snowed in always makes time seem to go just a bit slower.  There’s no "I guess I have to run to the store tomorrow" to take up your time.  There’s no "I have to get to the post office" (although I will have to try to make a trek to my mailbox at least, if I’m gonna get these packages to people in time for Christmas, ugh).  The list of things that have to get done gets cut to the things that you can do within your own home, and time seems to spread out a bit.

6. No one’s encroaching on my schedule.

I do not keep a normal schedule.  I require at least an average of 10 hours of sleep per night, and I live in a lot of pain.  I learned a long time ago that I have absolutely NO interest in laying in bed hurting, so I stay up until I can tell that I’m on the verge of exhaustion before I try to lay down.  Most nights this means I fall asleep immediately, but I don’t even try to lay down until the wee hours of the morning.  This puts me waking up in mid or late afternoon.

As much as I would love to be above ‘peer pressure’ I just care too much about what others think.  I live in a farming community, which means that most others think I’m a lazy do-nothing slob for sleeping into the afternoon.  

And so I have tried, and failed, many many times, to re-adjust my schedule, with absolutely no success.  If I go to bed early, I either lay there in pain for hours, or my body just takes the extra time for more sleep.  If I stay up all night, intending to go to bed at a normal time the next night, my body really rebels and I wake up 2 days later.   

But when I’m snowed in, all bets are off.  I don’t have to care if someone’s hoping I’ll be at church on a Sunday morning, since I can’t get there anyway.  I won’t get weird looks from people if I wander into the grocery shore at 1am to start shopping, and I won’t have to deal random family members look at me in disgust after asking what time I got up today.

7. I don’t feel guilty for not shoveling.

As I mentioned before, I can’t shovel.  I used to torture myself by trying to shovel anyway, and I would manage to some extent, but not enough to really matter.  The last time I tried I’m pretty sure I nearly had a heart-attack, and I have a really bad habit of falling when I’m outside in snowy/icy conditions.  Since I’ve fallen indoors at least 6 times in the past two months, and since my arm has gotten so bad I can’t lift a jug of milk without fear of dropping it, it would be absolutely insane for me to try to shovel my walks.

But that doesn’t mean I don’t feel guilty about it.  Every time someone comes to deliver a package or try to convert me to their insane cult I feel guilty about not having my sidewalk and porch shoveled and salted.  

But when I’m snowed in, it’s impossible to even tell where my driveway is (my brother bought me some of those reflectors that you’re supposed to line your drive with, but I always forget to put them out before the ground freezes).  The cultists stay away, and usually so do the package delivery guys… so there’s no one to worry about.

8. Snow tastes yummy.

Okay,  you don’t have to be snowed in for that one.