Now, if you don't know me, you don't understand what a big deal this is. I have a friend who says my love for snow is an affliction.
I was waxing poetic about past snows and Husband called me a "snow savant".
The next day it snowed a lot, we got five inches at my house. People were sending me messages like crazy about how I got my birthday wish.
I told them most my birthday wishes were granted. 1. Snow 2. A fire in the fireplace all day 3. Maxwell House coffee instead of the organic mess Husband makes and 4. A million dollars.
Still waiting on that last one.
But it was a good day anyway.
I remember many things about special snow times. My daddy dragging me out of my warm bed and carrying me to the door, pulling back the curtain and showing me a winter wonderland. I couldn't have been more than 3 at the time.
My grandmother calling me early morning every time it snowed to tell me, and to hurry and come on so we could make snow cream. I think of her every single snow.
Trying to get up the hill to my friend's house to play in the snow and not able to get enough traction to do so.
Snowball fights and many, many snowmen. I remember we had a huge snow when I was fifteen or sixteen. All the neighborhood teen boys and young men got together and built a giant snowman in the churchyard. It was as tall as the second story windows. As you can imagine, it made the paper.
The love of snow never left me growing up, even though it was scarier sometimes. After Husband and I built this house, getting home before it was too late was of utmost importance. Sometimes we made it "too late" and had to do all sorts of things to get to our house. The road getting here is straight up. He would gun the car and we would careen up the mountain, praying no one would decide to come down it. Most the time we made it - after the second or third try.
Of course, the biggest snow I ever encountered was the blizzard of '93. Since there had never been a recorded blizzard in the North Georgia Mountains, it's no wonder.
Daughter was not three years old yet, and she was sick on top of that. But the doctor had said he'd heard a really bad storm was coming up, she he gave her an antibiotic shot, and we rushed to the drugstore to get the medications fill. It was snowing by that time.
The middle of the night winds were harrowing. It snowed so hard we couldn't see past the windows. I'd never experienced thunder and lightning during a snowstorm, either.
By morning our electricity was history and it dropped to fifty degrees inside our house quickly. At that time our house was all electric (that got remedied shortly afterwards!) It dropped down to below freezing in the house before our power was restored.
Thank God, our neighbors, who visited occasionally from Florida, were here. They called and asked did we have heat. They had a wood burning furnace in their basement and told us to get there as soon as we could.
There are a lot of God stories about the blizzard, and one involves a snowsuit and snow boots we were able to dress Daughter in. A three minute walk took twenty as we struggled against the snow and howling wind. Our two boxers went ahead of us, sort of plowing a path for us.
We stayed at their house five days, virtual strangers. And we had a sick toddler. Bless 'em.
Finally, my brother's four wheel drive was able to get us to Mother's where we stayed until our electricity was restored, some days later.
I think we had either 24 or 27 inches of snow. I remember the day after it was ten degrees, but the wind had stilled. The storm was over!
For some years we had very little snow, then in 2014 we had many.
Last winter was a bummer, with one or two very light dustings and one scary icy morning.
For those of you who aren't fans of snow, I guess that was good, but for me, not so much.
Birthdays that stand out: My sixth. It was raining and my next door neighbor got me a child's size umbrella, which I'd never seen before. My seventh. I was in first grade and my teacher's birthday was the same as mine, so Mother brought cupcakes to the class. My ninth. Mother let me have a real party and I cleaned like crazy. I remember we played pin the tail on the donkey, and ring toss on Bullwinkle's antlers. My sixteenth. Mother cooked whatever I wanted and let me invite my boyfriend for supper. My twenty-first. I cried because I was now officially an adult. My 27th because I got to see the Monkees in concert - well, Mickey, Davey, Peter and Mickey's sister. Close enough. My 40th. My then sister-in-law went to a huge amount of trouble and put together an elaborate album of my life. And this year, because it was just a few days ago. Ha!
Don't remember many years when snow and birthdays collided, but I'm always grateful when they do!
