Winter Arrives, Finally

Now this is more like it. It is winter, after all. And we live in the Midwest.

We have had the mildest start to winter in my life. The string of 50-degree days felt nice, but very strange.

Of course, we had to get the mild weather this winter, the year that we got snowshoes for Christmas that we have yet to try. And the year that my wife got ice skates for all of us, which we’ve used only once.

But last night it finally snowed. Not counting the mirage of a snowfall we had last month, this is our first real snow of the season.

And Kai loved it.

He and I went out and played in it as it started falling yesterday. We had a snowball fight, and what is noteworthy is that he seems to finally be able to make his own snowballs this year.

This morning he wanted to help me shovel the driveway. Well, he helped for about two minutes until he realized what a pain it is, literally. And then he just wanted to throw more snowballs. He was in great spirits!

Unfortunately, the onset of winter weather wasn’t all good.

Kai’s taxi failed to show up this morning, presumably because of the weather. By the time I drove Kai to school, all of his joy over playing in the snow had long dissipated and he was extremely upset over being late, and for the disruption from his usual schedule. It was especially unfortunate, as he had been having a great week, with no incidents since he tore off the ends of his sleeves last week.

And now, as I sit here typing, I realize how much my back is aching from all the shoveling I did.

Okay, so I change my mind about the winter weather. Can we have 50 degrees again?