The Weather Outside is Frightful

It's early enough in the season that I still forget to go out a little early to warm up and brush off the car. I hate being in a hurry to get the kids to school and get myself to work and realizing that the windshield is frosted over. I've tried driving that way, with the defrost all the way up, but it doesn't work. And it's really dangerous. Trust me. This morning I forgot, again, but this time my car wasn't merely coated in a layer of frost, it was blanketed with two inches of snow. This bothered me, but not why you'd think. Light, fluffy snow is easy to clean off. It's just that that much snow is a sign of what the commute is going to be like. Sure enough, it took me twice the time it normally does. People just don't know how to drive in the snow, so there are lots of accidents. They think you can go as fast as in the summer, but even if you have 4-wheel-drive you can't stop on icy roads. I proved that myself when I overshot the driveway at work and had to drive around the block to the other entrance. It reminds me of when I was living in Chipley, Florida when it snowed. It never snows there, but I go there and it snows. Go figure. Anyway, it was just a skiff, hardly visible, but they shut down all the schools anyway. No one knew what to do. When my downstairs neighbor opened the door and saw what happened I heard her shouting, "Lawdy! Lawdy! Lawdy!" All the way to the car. I'm sorry she was shouting all the way to work. I grew up in the snow. I remember winters when we could walk nearly to the roof of our house on the drifts that built up there. I have also experienced the cold. I remember a windless day waiting for the school bus in 40 below weather. Spit freezes before it hits the ground in that temerature. Winters here are much milder, something I'm grateful for. But I find myself hoping it keeps snowing this winter. I never thought I'd say that, but I'm told if it keeps up like this, our six-year drought will be over. Wouldn't that be grand?