I recently wrote about my disappointment in not getting a forecast “snow day.” I should have known better. Within just a few days of posting that piece, we did get enough snowfall to warrant taking a snow day. Not enough for me to go back and eat my words, though, so I didn’t make note of that here — that time.
No, but we sure got some notable snow days this week. Snow started falling Monday evening, slowly but steadily, taking only brief breaks through Wednesday evening. By that time, we had accumulated somewhere between 6 to 8 inches of snow, maybe more.
And it’s still here. This morning, it was 5 degrees here in Cañon City. We haven’t reached temperatures above freezing since Monday afternoon. The forecast indicates we won’t hit that thawing point today, either, topping out at a chilly 27 degrees.
I now have reason to contradict my prior assertion in that recent blog post that I only experienced one episode of snow in my entire childhood. While working on my home movie digitization project, I ran across footage showing me running and playing in a light dusting of snow in our backyard back when I was only 3 years old. Could be why I didn’t remember it.
I also got reminded of our family’s one winter vacation at the YMCA camp in Estes Park, where we rented a cabin for a week in 1968. All of that footage is pretty poor quality, but it does show me & Scott frolicking in the snow, including one of us taking a long sledding run we loved.
There’s even footage of our sole skiing lesson. Mostly, I remember my fingers feeling so frozen the instructor finally loaned me her gloves to finish the lesson. See, we’d tried to buy our winter gear back in Houston, and, well, let’s say we weren’t properly outfitted for the weather. We left the ski slope directly after the lesson that day, not even bothering to try out the little we had learned (fall backward).
I am sometimes envious of people who do enjoy the snow and related winter sports. But between my inexperience and age, not to mention a certain proven bodily “fragility” (both shoulders previously wrecked & repaired at great cost), refraining makes more sense. I also think about Sara recounting how she never could enjoy skiing due to having terrible depth perception and bad balance, a perfect combo for NOT skiing safely. My vision and balance aren’t the most reliable either, I doubt I’ll be buying a ski pass anytime soon.
No, I remain primarily a winter wimp from my many years growing up in Texas. When it gets this cold, my basic reaction is to hunker down. Stock up on needed supplies and selected hunker-down foods — thanks for the crockpot stew yesterday, dear, a perfect example! — and let it snow.
Buller's back porch 