I must be getting older

I'm kind of sad that my reaction to snowfall has gone from "Wheee!!!!" to "@#$%, I get to spend all morning tomorrow shovelling the driveway and chipping ice off my windshield." I wonder if the fact that it's snowing here again is indicative of the sort of winter we can expect; the official prediction from the weather service a month or so ago was the utterly unhelpful but refreshingly honest: "It could be very snowy. It could not be very snowy at all. It could also be about the same as we'd normally expect, we really just don't know."

walking in a slush-filled wonderland

Today is Pungenday, day 56 in the season of The Aftermath, 3269.

The snow at 3 AM was untouched and gorgeous. By the time I left the house at 3 PM, the rain had turned the end of our driveway and the parking lot into a slush-filled area roughly the size of Lake Erie. It's still snowing with bits of sleet mixed in, and generally it's miserable to be out. Not that that stopped me from going shopping. ;) I hit Toys 'R Us and Target to finish shopping for my oldest nephew, my sister and brother and their spice and a couple of other people whose presents need to be mailed, now all I need is a couple of boxes big enough to put these toys for the nieces and nephews in and ship 'em. Oh yeah, and a luggage cart for hauling them to the post office and about four bazillion dollars for postage. For myself, I got an evergreen-scented candle to make up for having a fake tree and thus no fresh-tree smell for the house, a stuffed felt penguin ornament for the tree to join the rubber duckies and the Hello Kitty ornaments, holiday cards to send out and a gingerbread latte which could possibly be the best thing ever (although the peppermint hot chocolate seems like it might be competition for the title). The question for tonight is "do we top the tree with a giant flaming eye, or with the Grinch?"