This winter is making us all weary here in Michigan.

We've had record breaking amounts of snow-- nearly 6 feet.  And since my husband hurt his back pretty badly this Fall I'm doing most of the shoveling.  The girls help when they're home.  Today I hurt MY back a little.  Wasn't really the fault of the snow though.  There was only a little dusting.  I was just moving too fast.   It feels OK now.  (after Motrin)

I actually love the snow.  It's so beautiful.  But this winter it has come so quickly and in such amounts.  The sidewalks will usually clear if they're salted and the sun is out.  But salt doesn't work lower than about 15 degrees.  And we have had many, many (most?) days with temperatures lower than that.  So many sidewalks are snow and ice covered.  That together with the dangerously cold temperatures make it hard to even take the poor dog for a walk.

It makes a person want to complain!

OK.  How about a positive statement.  This morning I left with my daughter to drop her off at school.  In our kitchen we have a thermometer with a sensor outside.  This year the sensor got wet from all the snow and now it doesn't work.  So Mary and I were discussing what we thought the outdoor temp was.  We guessed somewhere in the teens.  We agreed that there was too much of a bite in the air for it to be in the twenties, which is just normal cold.  Probably the teens because it didn't seem TOO terribly cold. As we passed the Arborland thermometer we saw that it was in the single digits!!  So what is the positive statement?  We are getting tough.  Blood must be thickening.  Single digits temperatures don't seem all that bad!!  Really, it was noticeably different from the bone chilling sub zero temperatures we have had!  LOL

Well, Spring will be all that more delightful for the severity of this winter.  I can't wait to see the first snowdrops.  (That's a flower :-)  We've already seen plenty of the other kind of drops!