Friday, February 5, 2010

THE BIG ONE?

Snow's a'comin'!
That's what weather reports have been warning us about for the last couple of days. Everyone's been talking about it with dread or anticipation, depending on their attitude. And those with built-in storm-alert systems, such as bones which ache, joints that stiffen, or sinuses that clog, have been exchanging body prognostications with one and other as to when the storm will get here and how severe it is apt to prove regarding snowfall.
The weather professionals started out predicting 2-4 inches which was expected to arrive yesterday. Then the arrival time got pushed to last night and reduced to a half inch, with an additional 2-4 inches today. At 4:30 a.m. (thanks to a mistaken phone call) when I looked outside, the ground was snowless. Checking weather on my iPod before trying to get back to sleep, I found the revised forecast to be snow starting before noon, 4-8 inches of accumulation today, with an additional 4-6 inches tonight and 2-4 inches tomorrow. Now they're saying 3-7 inches today, an additional 3-7 inches tonight, and a final inch tomorrow.
The human oracles agree—expect the worst. This storm could very well be the "Big One!" The snowstorm of the season.
At least half the adults and all the kids are praying this turns out to be the case—the Big One—and the bigger the better. Snowfall amounts sufficient to invoke snow day rules for schools and many businesses have been few and far between hereabouts this time around. In fact, snowy days and total accumulation amounts have been under the average this winter. The usual freebie stay-at-home days have not provided those impromptu vacations everyone so looks forward to, and has honestly come to expect as due payment for all the rest of the varying weather a Buckeye has to endure through the year—from spring tornados to summer heat, and early frosts which kills and blackens your tomatoes before you get a chance to pick 'em.
Personally, I'm rooting for snow, snow, and more snow. Bring on the Big One. Let the winds howl and the drifts pile. Flakes as big as my thumbnail which float like goosedown, swirl sideways, or pour straight down. Give us a good old fashioned blizzard. A storm which blots out the far riverbank, sends droves of birds to the feeders, and makes the blazing hearth the living center of the cottage.
The good news is that it began snowing more than five hours ago. The bad news is that until the past hour, flakes were fine, wet, and not doing much of a job of sticking; even now, the ground is barely covered with white. Still, I'm not giving up my dreams just yet. Maybe this is only a prelude; or not even the music, simply the orchestra tuning up before the concert. I hope so. It's looking a bit more serious out there. Thank goodness! This has been a long, tiring, pressurized week of too much work, unexpected troubles, and not much fun. I could use some down time on the couch, stretched out before the fire, with a hot drink and a good book, Myladylove fiddling with some of her beadwork, safe and sound, and Moon the dog slumbering peacefully on the rug.
I'll let you know how it turns out…

14 comments:

Gail said...

HEY GRIZZ-

Here's to the "BIG ONE".........

We are getting only three inches here . Starting around dawn tomorrow.

Keep us posted.

Love Gail
peace.....

Bonnie Zieman, M.Ed. said...

May your dream come true! Forecasts indicate we will not be so lucky further north. Oh well, your turn - enjoy!!!

Grizz………… said...

Gail…

Still snowing here, heavy but fine stuff, pretty wet. I'd guess maybe an inch on the ground. Starting to get real pretty outside, though.

I'm making a pot of chicken chili with black beans. There's a toddy in my near future, too…

Take care.

Everything okay with MIL so far.

Grizz………… said...

Bonnie…

Sounds like encouraging words from a fellow snow aficionado. It's going to have to step it up to make a half-foot on the ground, but even a couple of inches will be welcome and make it seem like winter. I've had my fill of gray, but not of white.

Wanda..... said...

I'm all prepared mentally for a BIG snowstorm, so it better be impressive and pretty!

Grizz………… said...

Wanda…

Well I hope it's going better for you than it is for me—so far, it's maybe 1-1/2 inches and slushy. I'm ready for something way more impressive than this! Keep your fingers crossed…

Bernie said...

Enjoy your snow storm Grizz, I love them especially when I am warm by the fire but please don't send it this way, we have far too much snow now.
Our east coast, Newfoundland, is having a horrible blizzard as I type.......but then they haven't been dumped on all winter and are probably enjoying it as you will.
......-) Hugs

Kelly said...

...I'm rooting for the big one too. White is better than grey right now, and the woods are so pretty in white. It's very wet snow down here....12:30 a.m. and we only have 2 inches. I guess we'll have to wait and see what the morning brings!

Jayne said...

It's funny... when I watch the weather forecast anymore, I think of my blog friends who live in the path of the storm, and last night, when we saw the ginormous front stretching from Missouri to the coast, I thought of you and all my friends who will be covered in feet of snow. If you are used to it, I suppose it is a welcome sight. Here, we are so ill equipped to deal with amounts like that, we'd be incapacitated for a week. Batten down the hatches and keep warm my friend!

The Weaver of Grass said...

Hope that by the time you read this you are well and trule snowed in - that every cardinal in the district is knocking on your window for food - that those ducky doodles are quacking at your door - that the coffee pot is on and the crumpets are toasting. Keep warm.

Grizz………… said...

Bernie…

That's exactly what I've been doing—enjoying the snow. Tramping around, playing with Moon the dog, taking pictures.

Grizz………… said...

Kelly…

About the time you were writing your comment, I was heading to bed after checking my yard for snow…but only had 2 inches or less, and it wet and dripping. This morning I woke up to find more like 6-7 inches down…so not the big one, but big enough to be lovely and fun. Hope you've been out taking pix.

Grizz………… said...

Jayne…

I do the same thing—see a weather report and think of blog friends who live in that particular area.

FYI, we didn't get feet of snow, just a few inches, but you'd be surprised how much of a dither it threw a lot of folks into; we Buckeyes are becoming wusses or something. We've had plenty of snows this deep and lots deeper over the years, but you'd think this was the first flake we ever saw. I've been in the South when it snowed, and people there go absolutely nuts, like it was was the end of the world; they have no snow-driving skills whatsoever. But hey, they aren't used to snow—not walking on snow, or driving on snow, or even seeing snow. We live in Ohio, for mercy sakes; a Great Lakes state. The Midwest. Snowbelt country. We have no excuse for the silly way we react!

Grizz………… said...

Weaver…

I'm not snowed in, but it did snow…and I've been taking redbird photos, you bet! Plus snow photos and river photos. At 6:30 this morning, log before daylight, I went out and swept an area clean of snow, and threw our a few scoops of cracked corn. There were cardinals waiting in the dark. And I hadn't more than made it back inside before 8-10 males and maybe almost that many females were feeding briskly. Too dark for a photo of that scene, though, even with the ISO cranked up…though I tried.