Not much. What's snow with you? <ducking!>



I grew up in San Diego. Snow is something you drive to, play in for a little bit, then drive home.

I did spend a year in Salt Lake City, though, and found that shoveling the sidewalk and driveway was actually kind of fun, once.

Once.

I don't envy you folks in snow country at all.

How are heating oil prices looking this year?

Amen!

Desert isn't for everyone, but I'm happy to have winter-prep consist of cutting back timer-hours for pool pump/filter and landscape irrigation system.

Snow, the white stuff I spent months shoveling in NH when I lived there. When the mean depth equalled my height (6 ft) I left. Altho it was great to ski to work everyday (xcountry down to and uphill from) I got tired of it quickly.

So after joining the Army I figured I was safe at FT Bragg, til I came off of Xmas leave and was told pack for cold, we are headed to Alaska for a month. COLD was right, -69 degrees our first night out, set a record for a lower 48 unit. That was when my ruck was well over 100 lbs, with a stupid PRC77 in it, and my cold gear. Made a return trip 2 years later, it was much warmer. And my pack was somewhat lighter, not an RTO anymore, lol.

Winter prep down south is put away the lawn mower about October. Find my undershirts about December so I won't have to wear a jacket. Switch to a heavier ball cap in February. It's rough.

What's snow? It's what happens when a series of tropical storms, sort of, drop their moisture in a form that sets up like concrete and gets in your way for the next six months.

It doesn't exactly feel like fall up here yet. The hummingbirds are still around and the barn swallows are incubating a second brood.

But I'm noticing a subtle change in the colour of the light. I'll be switching to fall mode pretty soon.

Winter prep means having a contractor replace some old windows in the house, tidying up the wood pile, cutting up a bunch of dry trees, mowing any tall grass (fall/spring fire hazard), servicing the snowblower and lawn tractor at the same time, moving in a bigger freezer, cleaning up the cold room for potato storage, checking the winter rims for any tires with leaks, digging all those root veggies, making a truckload of compost from garden greenery ... you know, the usual kick-back-and-relax list.

One very chilly winter morning, I had a friend from the south over to the house. I wanted to demonstrate a Northern MN 'parlor' trick, so I poured a cup of hot coffee right from the pot and took it out on the back deck. I threw the coffee into the air and with a 'swoosh' sound, it drifted to the ground as fine brown ice crystals.

You could try this with lemonade, but I still wouldn't eat the yellow snow.