OMG IT'S SNOWING

I live in the southeastern US, which hardly ever sees snow, so this particular statement could be seen on my Facebook news feed about 95.7% of the time today. Admittedly, I ran around like a 4 year old in the snow, threw snowballs at my friends, and built a fairly shitty snowman because this was the most snow I've seen (in person) since I was, well, 4 or 5 years old.

Focus: What did you do during "Snowmageddon 2010?"

Alt. Focus: What weather events are rare in your neck of the woods? What crazy/abnormal shit do you do whenever that weather comes around?

 

When I die, I think I will look back on my life and consider the one thing I have been most thankful for is the fact that I grew up in snow. The childhood it gave me can never, ever be replaced. I sometimes think it's abusive to raise your children in perpetually warm climates.

Snowmageddon 2010: Besides staying in a lot and getting drunk, I attended the Dupont Circle snowball fight February 6th where about 2,000 people pelted each other with snowballs for hours on end. Most fun I've had, since doing the same shit 7 days a week when I was a kid.

In my hometown of Traverse City, Michigan, we'd get heavy snow from mid November through early March, sometimes later. I never came home from school any earlier than 6:00 pm during the winter. My brother and I staged king of the hill battles after school every day, and we'd spend the walk home in snowball wars with the 10 or so kids that always joined us.

As I got older, I made my bones skiing in Boyne Mountain and Crystal Mountain, with an elevation of about 500 feet, which is where I raced in high school. By the time I was 16 or 17 I had skied that mountain so many times I could do it with my eyes closed, so my buddy and I started thinking of ways to make the place more exciting which included never skiing the groomed trails. We got kicked out a lot, but we'd spend our days there avoiding ski patrol, skiing the pow under the lift lines, cutting the ropes, jumping off the chair lifts... If we did get kicked out, which was often, we'd usually drive somewhere with steep slopes, climb it and ski that. One time we attached his wake board rope to the back of my van, he strapped on his skis and I'd drive as he'd get up speed and hit a jump. We did a lot of crazy shit growing up.

I love, love, love snow. I've loved the snowmageddon here in DC, I loved it growing up, I'll love it always. There was one time I hated it, and that was during college, because the perpetual wind, cold, dark and snow made bar nights and going to class kind of a bitch, but that's it.

 

I was woken up at 4 AM last week by an earthquake, which is weird because I live in Wisconsin. I'm just psyched that it's gonna snow up here because 1) it'll be warmer*, at least for the next few days and 2) I can ski on real snow for awhile.

Back when I was younger, when it snowed hard we'd grab a tube and the ski tow rope out of my parent's boat and drive around trying to find an unplowed road. We'd have someone holding the other end of the rope in the back of my truck, and see how fast we could get someone going on the tube. Despite sounding dangerous, no one really got hurt, though mailboxes were a constant danger.


*This probably sounds like a retarded statement for those of you that live down south. The temperature actually goes up when it snows because snow means clouds, which insulate the atmosphere. There might be more to it than that; someone who knows what they're talking about, feel free to chime in.

 

I absolutely love the snow. As gay as it sounds, one of my favorite things to do is to simply watch it fall. I just get this peaceful, serene feeling watching the snow come to blanket over everything, and yet despite all this action everything is almost completely silent. So tranquil. And then I go inside and read all the fuckers on Facebook bitching and moaning "OMGz when will teh snow go away??" and I don't understand how you can have such animosity towards something so awesome (in the "inspiring awe" sense). To each their own, I suppose.

That having been said, I definitely still do enjoy playing in the snow. As someone echoed before, I remember fondly having snow around to play in when I was a kid, and particularly since we lived in the country my siblings and I had a blast. When our driveway was plowed (by our relatives with tractors big enough to do the whole thing) there would be one massive mountain of snow at the base of our driveway that we would play King of the Hill on. This was all well and good with the exception that there was also gravel from the driveway mixed in with the snow, making it a bit dangerous sometimes when snowballs were made out of it.

Unfortunately I've been too busy lately to have any real fun in the snow, which is why I guess it's good that I'm the type of person that enjoys watching it fall, since that's all I've been able to do lately.

 

Snow is wonderful to watch from inside your heated home. Outside, it is cold, hard, wet gravel-salt-and-mud-infused filth that is a non-stop inconvienience and health hazard. There are a few (re: few) outdoor activites than I like in winter, but the bottom line is that winter sucks and it's a five-month speed bump to weather than is actually enjoyable. Snow looks pretty in movies, yes. In real life (especially the roads), it has disgusting exhaust shit blown into it constantly, it's packed hard so it make make slippery enough conditions to wreck your car or kill you, and it makes everybody that's already a bad driver in nice weather act like an complete unflinching retard.

If you want snow, take it. I'm going to retire in southern Arizona.

 

I have mixed emotions when it comes to snow. I was born in northern Indiana and loved the stuff as a kid. Then I grew up, started driving, got a job, and had to deal with the impracticalities of winter. My fiancee is from Texas and absolutely loves it. Then again, she's not the one out at 6am shoveling our driveway, which is on a massive hillside.

On the other hand, I get pretty floored to take the dogs out and let them play at the park for a couple of hours. This is our St. Bernard's first winter, and he goes absolutely ballistic anytime we let him out in the snow. It's funny, because he's a giant 160lb lumbering oaf, but he still bunny hops around like a puppy. He's about as coordinated as a 6-year old girl wearing her mother's heels around the house, but about 3 times as big.

 

I grew up in Southeast Michigan where we would get some good snow falls every year that would warrant at least a couple snow days per year but nothing all that exciting compared to the rest of the state of Michigan.

I currently go to university in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan where we on average get more than 200 inches of snow a year. Starting in October, ending in April sometime. Despite the south's and northwest's dumping of snow this year we are hardly on par to break 200 inches. Other than December, where we got 60 inches in the first 10 days, we have hardly had any compared to other years.

As for school being cancelled, it hardly happens. It has only happened twice since I have been here for the past 5 years and the one time it was because we got 40 inches in the 24 hours prior and the wind was making the roads constantly covered.

 

I also live in Wisconsin and love the snow when I can actually utilize it. Due to being busy this year I haven't been able to do much besides snowmobile a little here and there. Really, though, I love living up here for the ability to just go snowboarding on a whim if I feel like. I really do feel bad for other kids that didn't get to grow up with copious amounts of snow. Some of my best memories are waging wars with snowballs on some of my foe's of the neighborhood's forts.

 

Whenever we get big snow falls, my cousins and I tie a conveyor belt to the back of a quad and pull each other around a field. We see who can stay on the longest while being whipped around corners and down hills. Dangerous, maybe. Fun, hell yeah.

Sadly, I have been away at school during all of this amazing snow, so I got to spend the best snow storm in a while being in class. Most bigger schools around us (Pitt and some state schools) canceled classes but our damned president refused to cancel ours. The one day classes were canceled it was because of an ice storm.

One highlight from the snow was a snowball fight with about 200 people involved. It took place across a street and I'm pretty sure that a car that was driving through got a broken window.

 

Werd.

As if life wasn't shitty enough on the mornings you had to drive your "I dont blow heat until right when you get to the office" car, add in fucking snow and making the walk to the parking lot over unshoveled sidewalks in fucking wingtips and you seriously begin to question your ability to just leave for the equator.

Fuck.

 

I grew up in Cleveland, which according to this study, is America's worst winter weather city: <a class="postlink" href="http://www.forbes.com/2010/02/05/weather-snow-storm-lifestyle-travel-winter-snowfall_slide.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.forbes.com/2010/02/05/weathe ... slide.html</a>


And I loved it. Winter when you are a kid is, quite frankly, the most magical fun time there is. Snowball fights, sledding, building forts. I was able to catch a little bit of the snow this year, as I spent the Holidays in Cleveland at the folks' house, and I didn't do shit in the snow. I wanted to go boarding, or at least sledding, so bad, but when I was there I just didn't have the motivation to do it. I suck.

Living in a warm weather climate now, I really miss the snow sometimes. I think it's just something I connect to my childhood though. Any thoughts of snow conjure up those warm fuzzies of nostalgia for a time of loving security, when I wasn't living so alone and meagerly.

Honestly though, I was hearing on the news about schools being closed for a full week and shit like that. What the hell? When I was growing up it was all but impossible to get a snow day. I remember one day Junior year of high school we got something like 18 inches of snow over night, and school was still open. Of course, there were about 50 kids that went off the road on the way to school, including me. I had to call my uncle to come tow me out, then I called the school, told 'em they were crazy and I wasn't coming in, and I still somehow got in ttrouble.

 

Focus: Although this happened in December and not during "Snowmageddon", I'd say it fits the focus well enough. We had our first full snow day on record at the University of Wisconsin- Madison (the records only go back to 1963 or something but still, that's a long fucking time) after we got more than 20 inches of snow in less than 12 hours or so. It happened literally a week before the first day of finals so of course, being the good students that we are, we all got drunk and 2,000+ of us (according to Facebook) had a snowball fight.

Go to about 1:50 to see the scope of it.

 

I'm at school in WNY. So while back home got pounded with 2?ish feet of snow, we've only had a coupe of inches here and there. It's fun laughing at all of my friends who still go to school there; it's a nice change of pace from the norm.

As far as snow shenanigans, back when I was in high school I loved taking the quad or bike out for a run. The bike was especially fun, as the front wheel now slides around as much as the back. Plus 20-30 ft rooster tails of snow are just downright awesome. Even more so as a welcome to your buddy who just showed up. Damn I miss riding off-road.

Freshman year we were all set with the tow rope off the back of the car and my friend on the snowboard, ready to pull out when campo rolled up. Just a warning, but damn it we were so close.

Unfortunately I've been too broke this year to hit the slopes. I tried snowboarding last winter for the first time and loved it. I was really hoping I could save some green and get a board this year, but no such luck.

 

In Montreal it's usually just a bit too cold for snowball fights, forts and all the fun stuff. Reminds me of my youth: feet of gorgeous powder just begging to be molded into snowballs (which would've then been directed by grade-six-Supertramp at that girl I "like-liked")... just laying there.

Bitter injustice.

We make up for it though, by drinking heavily by the age of 18 (that same girl from grade six is now a club-rat, coke-head whore though).

If I only could've pelted her with snow, she wouldn't have been led astray...

 

We've been off for the entire week and it's been Heaven. I was smart and stocked up on all kinds of liquor before the storm. My grocery list was something like "milk, eggs, bread, vodka, bailey's, gin, beer, wine, wine, wine, and wine." It's wonderful to have a little Baileys in your coffee before you have to go out and shovel and even better to warm up with a little g & t once you've finished. Awesome. Usually, I'm pretty pissed that I don't live in the city to go walking to the bars to get oblitterated. Snow day drinking days are always so much fun. No, this time, I was very content to be home in my warm bed doing things and catching up on shit I've taken for granted.

I've baked, cooked, drank, read for pleasure, cleaned, reorganized, watched movies, went drunken sledding, took a few walks, got my resume together, and most of all slept. I didn't care that I couldn't get out of my house or couldn't go out snow day drinking with my friends this time around. I didn't go stir crazy one bit and couldn't understand the people who "just HAD TO" get out of the house. I enjoyed every minute of being home and am pissed that I have to go back tomorrow. Let it snow, I say.

 

Yeah, going to the beach on the coldest day of winter to go swimming and bbq sucks. Damn my parents!

The most miserable day of my life was when I was four, and we moved from the very northern tropics to a place much further from the equator, and at a much higher altitude. The second day in the new house, I ran outside to play in the rain - expecting it to be the shower temperature that water from the sky comes out at where we had lived before. I cried for like 2 days.

God I love living on the coast in the tropics. I live a little bit inland at the moment - but most of the places I've lived as an adult, haven't seen snow since the last ice age.

 

I live in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area, so seeing close to a foot of snow around here is not common.

My roomie and I went out late with a sword and battle axe and ruined all the snowmen in our neighborhood.
I know what you're thinking; we are huge assholes to ruin little kids' fun. Well, you would be right but how often
do you get to legally vandalize things? Most fun I've had in a long time.

 

That's exactly what I've always noticed when it snows here (northeast GA-in 31 years, I've seen snow less than 20 times). Whenever it's cold and/or raining, it's windy as fuck. When it snows here, the air stays calm. It's quite peaceful. Also, snow usually lasts less than 24 hours here, so we might have power outages, but it's not like they're blizzards.

I was at work, driving around, when the snow started here the other day. No big deal-it never got below 30 or so degrees during the day, so I had plenty of time to tie up my loose ends and get home before the roads froze over. When I got home, I invited friends over and we burned wood and drank copious amounts of booze.

With that, if I go to hell when I die, it will be snowing there. Fuck winter and fuck snow.

 

"Snowmageddon"?? Anyone civilized knows to call it the "snowpocalypse". I swear, some people...

FOCUS: Untouched snow is beautiful, and inspires within me the urge to destroy something beautiful. Within a week, it is heaped in mountains of dirty, pissed-on shit in the grass, and the roads are covered with disgusting slush (euphemistically referred to as "wintry mix" when it falls out of the sky like God's scraped-off nose grease). Traction? Forget about it. Gale-force winds making all layers of clothing useless? Check. And who's up for some black ice?



Pictured: Satan's hardened ejaculate.

On days like this, when it switches between half-assed flurries and sleet, I lie in bed and dream of warm rain.

Fuck winter.