First Snow 2008

The first significant snow of... uh... the fall season fell today. Not officially winter yet here in Ohio but you can't tell by looking out the window. The boys played outside twice after school today, and they had a blast.

As I drove home from work in white out conditions today, I realized the reason I dislike winter so much is because of my "issues"... you know, my OCD, AHDH, and all of the other disorders that get some assistance with my happy medicine. Go figure.

I like to do things with speed and precision, with very little effort, and I then like to move on to the next thing. But in the winter, every... thing... takes... longer. You have to put on layers just to be indoors and warm. If heading out, you then need to first find your hat, gloves, scarf, boots, coat and chapstick. With three kids, multiply that by at least five. No more sliding on flipflops and heading out the door. You have to drive slower... that is after you have shoveled the driveway, the street and the sidewalks... and, once you have scraped the ice from your windows and have laid salt down on the driveway. On nights after school when the kids want to play outside, it takes 10 minutes per kid just to get the winter gear on.

I seriously do not know how my Mom lived through the prep work involved with having an ice rink in our backyard every winter. I remember, very vividly, sitting at the step that separated the kitchen from the laundry room getting ready to go outside to skate. There were the ritual steps that my Mom went through with each of us. Skates did not go on before pants (dah). Coat did not go on before gloves. Scarf before coat, too. You get the point. But once she got us out there, bundled up, she and my Dad had peace and quiet in the house for at least two hours. I am thinking an ice rink may be the way to go...

... that is if we don't move to Turks and Caicos or some other warm, tropical heaven that we see Friday night on International House Hunters.