Karen Funk Blocher writes:

We’re officially still within the first 30 days of winter in the Northern Hemisphere, so we’ve got quite a bit of it to get through before the spring solstice. This may therefore be a good time to cultivate an appreciation for the season, which I will encourage thus:

Weekend Assignment #198: What is your favorite thing about winter? Whether you love this time of year, hate it or merely endure it, you should be able to find something good to say about the season. What is it?

Extra credit: What do you hate most about winter?

Here under the Big Top we don’t necessarily hate winter. We can go weeks on end without seeing the sun like many other folks but we usually remind ourselves of how hot it can get around these parts in the summer. Like Karen, I grew up back east where one must often negotiate tons of snow, ice, slush, sub-zero temperatures and wind chill factors that can even freeze your snot. I might complain at times about the winds, the rain and the tule fog but I do appreciate the fact that we have it pretty good here…until we take a day trip up to the snow about an hour or so away from here. How pretty it is I find myself sighing. How clean and crisp the air feels, I exclaim. Then the snot in my nose freezes or I slip on a icy patch and land on my big ol’ butt and then we have to drive home (usually after wrestling with tire chains that we haven’t used in a year or two). No, I think we usually have it pretty good around these here parts in comparison.

Winter time is great time when one is Vampira, the night shift nurse. We call it great sleeping weather. The skies are gray pretty much all day. The steady rhythm of the wind and or rain easily drowns out the daytime citizens going on about their lives as well provides a steady, soft lullabye that beckons me into what is often a restful sleep. Daytime sleep like that in the summer months is virtually impossible. For that I appreciate and welcome Winter.

What do I hate (or dislike most) about Winter? Besides the fact that it is RSV, colds and flu season and most of humanity (at least the dumb-assed part) feels compelled to drag their sick, snotty, coughing, sneezing selves out and about to work, to run errands, to church and to school where they selfishly cough, sneeze, slime and expose vulnerable people like my Daniel unnecessarily to their germs? I could do without driving in this crap on a regular basis. Pictured below is the main drag off of my neighborhood. To the left is where I do my usual grocery runs and to the right is Chez McD, Daniel’s favorite restaurant.

Trust me, the Tule fog is as bad as they say it is and as bad as it looks from up above.