I'm a Snow Dog

For some reason, when I tell people "I'm a snow dog," I don't have to explain that it means I love winter and I love snow. "Snow dog" seems to instantly give them the mental picture of a Samoyed or Husky dog, perfectly happy in a howling snowstorm.

You would think Michigan, with lake-effect snow storms, where the storm whooshes over Lake Michigan, picks up about half of it, and then dumps it on the state as snow, would be full of snow-lovers like me. But it doesn't seem like it to listen to the complaints. People don't like to shovel snow or drive in it.

I don't ski, I don't dog-sled, but I just like snow. It makes the winter brighter, I like the cold air, and it gives me an excuse for drinking hot cocoa and knitting warm things. I don't mind shovelling or raking the roof, except when I hurt my shoulder. And except for the time when I raked the roof with my then-new handknitted mittens, and turned the palms dark gray from the wet aluminum rake handle! Thank goodness Wool-Ease is washable!

I don't even mind driving in snow. Both of our Hondas have front-wheel drive. We've driven Hondas since we bought one brand-new back when we had only been married for nine months.

I've driven a Honda home from work in a snowstorm where the windshield literally was covered every half-cycle of the windshield wipers: as the wipers went up, the windshield got covered, and as they went down again, it was already covered. A memorable storm. I got all the way down the highway in weather where I literally could not see where the road was supposed to be, got onto the ramp of my exit, and got stuck in a drift. Fortunately two pickup trucks pulled up behind me, and since I was blocking the exit, they pushed me out. I yelled "Thanks!" out the window and kept driving. I didn't dare stop in case I got stuck again. I think I plowed the road with the front bumper of my car, and when I got to my driveway, I just rammed the car into the drift across the bottom, got out, and floundered up the driveway for the snow shovel. I shovelled enough to get both of our cars away from the road and out of range of the snow thrown by the slant plow blade, and called that good enough.

I can't remember if it was a different storm or not, but after another snowstorm I got up and got ready for work, and drove down the road about a mile. Then I had to stop. The road went down into a little cut there, and the snow had drifted across the field that was higher than the road, and solidly filled in the lower road with snow. I scratched my head, turned around, and went home. They had to bring in a bulldozer with a plow blade on it from the other side of the drift to open the road.

If this sounds like I am reminiscing about snow, I am. Every winter is strange in its way. This winter's way has been to come early, then leave. We had snow in November, into December, and then we got rain on Christmas Day. January was a lot warmer and much less snowy than January usually is here. I pruned a bush in a short-sleeved shirt one day, and it was nearly 60 degrees F. ! Most of the month we had no snow at all. The farmers around here with apple, peach, and cherry trees, were all starting to worry about the buds breaking and then getting frozen out.

Now that it is February, it has turned colder again, and we have a dusting of snow. Yesterday we literally got a dusting at my house. It was pretty, the flaky snow you get when it is quite cold, coming down gently with no wind, and outlining every branch.

So I got inspired by the snow and my friend's "smoke ring" that her mom knitted for her, and started one for myself. My husband seems to have walked off with the camera again, but I only have an inch or three anyway, so it doesn't look like much yet anyway. I'm using a skein of Lion Brand "Homespun" I bought ever so long ago.