January Doldrums

Ryan and Eric


Everything is more difficult in winter weather. For those of you in warm climates, I just want to say: Winter in Nebraska sucks right about January/February. Everything takes longer, because you have to plan for driving conditions, warming the car - which by the way, it's illegal to leave your car running and go in the house - there are a wholelotta folks breaking the law every winter. If you have more cars than fit in your garage - or your garage is too full to fit all your cars - you have to scrape ice from the windows.

Getting kids ready for school requires coats and hats and mittens and tennis shoes for gym in the bookbag - and good luck seeing all those garments again at the end of the school day. We have an odd glove basket in the coat closet. If you lose yet another glove, well, you wear a pair that doesn't match.

And then there's the elementary school lost and found- It's downright amazing what kids lose at school. I'm looking for a few good gloves to match the ones at home, and I need to take a lunch! Hats, scarves, COATS, school sweatshirts, mittens, lunchboxes, Webkins. I understand the hats and stuffed animals, but do parents not notice that their kid came home without his coat? People, it's ten below zero out there!

Of course, because it IS Nebraska, and zero temps are normal, a thirty or forty degree day is cause for leaving all that stuff in the backpack. Whoo hoo, it's summer!

No kidding, if the temp hits 40, you see adults at Walmart in shorts and sweatshirts.

Oh, and one of my biggest peeves - the garage floor. Every time you drive in with all that sand and slush and dirt and ice caked inside the wheel wells, it melts and cakes on the floor. Now, you can either sweep it out while it's wet - yuck - or wait until it dries, which is my method. We are blessed to face the west, so even our driveway dries pretty nicely once it's shoveled and had a little sun - but my friend Barb's driveway has 2 inches of ice on it, as well as 60 pounds if ice melt, and it never melts because she's at the bottom of a hill and seldom gets sun on that side of her house. When I go over, I park on the street and walk through snow in the the yard to the house. I don't know how they get their mail.

Oh, and grocery shopping is a workout in this weather. You're all bundled up, so you have to take your coat off or roast in the store. Then shop, pay, put on your coat, mittens, scarf and TRY TO PUSH A SHOPPING CART over rutted ice and six inches of slush! I always park by a cart return. If you make it to your vehicle, you load the bags while the wind blows your scarf in your face and freezes the inside of your nose. Can anybody relate?

So...ready for spring, anyone?