I've spent most of my life hating winter. Well, maybe hating is too strong a word. Despising? Detesting? Anyway, winter in Wisconsin and I were not on the best of terms.
Oh, as a kid I enjoyed it a bit. Playing in the snow, making snowmen, etc. Of course, that was before I had to shovel the driveway, or drive on shitty roads, or avoid shitty drivers on those shitty roads. For all of my adult life, however, I spent all of winter counting the days to spring, clean streets, good bike-riding weather, and all that.
Last year, for Christmas, I received cross-country skis, boots, and poles. I managed to go skiing once with my sister, for about half an hour, then all the snow melted. Damn global warming!!
This year, Wisconsin has been trying to set some sort of record for snowfall, and I have managed to get out skiing several times already. And something strange has begun to happen. I'm not hating winter anymore!
During the summer, on beautiful sunny days, while I am at work, I find myself staring wistfully out the window at the blue sky and open road, wishing I could be out there on my bike, pedalling away the miles, working up a sweat, and enjoying the countryside. Today, in the middle of a snowstorm that is supposed to drop seven inches overnight, I found myself at work staring wistfully out of the window at the massive snowdrifts, the gray sky, the falling flakes, wishing desperately that I could go out in it on my skis, working up a sweat, enjoying the wooded trails, and feeling my beard freeze.
That was when I realized - I love winter!! I have something to do now that makes me love winter just as much as I love summer! After over forty years, I can finally enjoy Wisconsin in all its harsh winter glory! Yay snow!!!
P.S.: I live in a condo now, too, so I don't have to shovel anymore!
Oh, as a kid I enjoyed it a bit. Playing in the snow, making snowmen, etc. Of course, that was before I had to shovel the driveway, or drive on shitty roads, or avoid shitty drivers on those shitty roads. For all of my adult life, however, I spent all of winter counting the days to spring, clean streets, good bike-riding weather, and all that.
Last year, for Christmas, I received cross-country skis, boots, and poles. I managed to go skiing once with my sister, for about half an hour, then all the snow melted. Damn global warming!!
This year, Wisconsin has been trying to set some sort of record for snowfall, and I have managed to get out skiing several times already. And something strange has begun to happen. I'm not hating winter anymore!
During the summer, on beautiful sunny days, while I am at work, I find myself staring wistfully out the window at the blue sky and open road, wishing I could be out there on my bike, pedalling away the miles, working up a sweat, and enjoying the countryside. Today, in the middle of a snowstorm that is supposed to drop seven inches overnight, I found myself at work staring wistfully out of the window at the massive snowdrifts, the gray sky, the falling flakes, wishing desperately that I could go out in it on my skis, working up a sweat, enjoying the wooded trails, and feeling my beard freeze.
That was when I realized - I love winter!! I have something to do now that makes me love winter just as much as I love summer! After over forty years, I can finally enjoy Wisconsin in all its harsh winter glory! Yay snow!!!
P.S.: I live in a condo now, too, so I don't have to shovel anymore!