If we ever leave this house, we’re going somewhere south. Somewhere sunny and warm, where winter means a light jacket after sunset. Not snowsuits, triple layers, and full days of shoveling.

All winter we’ve been dodging bullets, revelling in our luck that all giant snowstorms seem to fall just north or south of us. About an hour away they’ve been in a state of emergency since last week, when 100+ inches fell in the span of a few days…. and throughout that storm, we were blessed with merely a few inches. A light dusting, if you will. Nothing that would slow a New Yorker down, especially if that New Yorker is in a SUV barrelling past you on the Thruway.

And then on Valentines Day, we finally got our first big snowstorm of the season and we all stopped laughing about the poor people on the news trying to dig tunnels out their front doors. For the first time that I can remember, stores and banks actually closed down for the day. The University I work at canceled classes for the second time in it’s entire history. But Central New Yorkers are a headstrong bunch… we’ll drive in nearly every type of weather, including whiteouts and blizzards. So by late afternoon, everyone who had a “snow day” was at the grocery store catching up on their errands, including me. It was pretty funny watching people try to maneuver full shopping carts out in the snow-filled parking lot.

When the University declared a snowday, I geared up and spent the next 2 hours digging my car out of the driveway. After that, I spent another two trying to make room for Teague’s truck – and an hour digging a neighbor’s car out of a snowbank in the road. It was a great workout, but by 9 that night all my hard work had been snowed over again. Teague took a turn digging, and the piles grew ginormous.

Yesterday, it snowed some more. Just a few inches of lake effect, nothing too notable, but it did make our piles a bit more problematic. The end of the driveway looks like a mini mountain range.

Today we woke up to two more feet of snow…. and now, there is really no place to put it. We started digging around 7:15 this morning and managed to get Teague’s truck out of the driveway by 8:30. Thank god for four wheel drive. I took some photos this morning so you can see how totally excited Teague is about the snow:

(He would not smile. Not even after two cups of hot chocolate and french toast!)

Snow days were certainly more fun back when my father was the one in charge of cleaning the driveway, but for a split second this morning I did truly enjoy our snowy wonderland. The neighborhood is unrecognizable, a big puffy cloud of white. I donned my snowpants and ran around in the backyard, where the snow is up to my waist. It made me feel like a little kid again. We haven’t had snow like this in ages! Itried to get the dogs to come out and play with me, but they steadfastly refuse to leave the warmth of the house – even after I dug them little trails. They want no part of it.

In the meantime, I am snowbound and working from home. My ’94 Corolla just isn’t made for commuting in blizzards. We’ve been calling around frantically for a plow guy, but they’re all trying to catch up with their regular customers so we’re on our own. Teague is on his way to borrow a snowblower from his parents…. no amount of shoveling is going to help us now!

As always, bigger pics (and more of them, if you just totally love snow) can be found on our Flickr account: http://www.flickr.com/photos/fixerupper/