Christmas sucked.

I got sick. Let's just say gastric upset. I can't believe I missed out on my brother's shrimp scampi and steaks made on the wood fire. Cripes. Bah- stomach bug!

I knew it was too good to last!

The storm almost over, leaving approximately eight

inches in its wake.

This is the view out my back window yesterday morning. Yay. I had been perfectly content living in the-Not-So-Great-White-North sans snow, it was pleasant even! I guess all good things must end...

This storm came after we'd had nearly a week with both misting rain, fog and ice fog, followed quickly by two days of solid rain. And I'm not overstating... People were looking for the Ark! I had a puddle in a low spot in my yard that was over ankle deep!

I was on the highway when the dangerous change began. Around here, when there's rain, it can turn to glare ice in a matter of minutes. I had the radio off and had already dropped my speed to 55.

I carefully listened to the hiss of the water under the tires. It was mesmerizing, to the point of almost hypnotic, when it stopped. It was only for less than a perhaps 15 feet, but there it was... No sound...

The water was gone. It was now black ice.

I reduced my speed immediately and sighed a bit when I again heard the much more comforting hiss. Then the song of the tires on wet pavement began to skip like an old LP with a scratch. The temp was dropping and fast.

I was luckily getting off the highway within a few miles and was quite relieved. Then... it started. Huge raindrops began to "plop" on the windshield. Seriously.

Plop!

The snow was the worst you can get... wet, heavy and thick. Reducing visibility to only around 50 to 75 feet and sometimes much less in front of the car. And it was not about to quit. When it was time to head back home about 20 minutes later, there was any easy three inches of snow to clean off the car. At this point,I had no choice other than the highway to use, as the secondary roads were unplowed, unsalted and had deep, deep ditches.

What had been a 40 minute trip back home stretched into almost two hours. The police were all waiting in the turnouts, being a visible deterrent to the brain-damaged SUV owners driving like bats out of hell, but mostly just waiting mid-corridor for the accident responses to begin.

I'm a pretty strong person emotionally, I don't get rattled too easily, but parking the car at home, the "decompression" hit before I could get out of it. I cried for about 10 minutes. And said a small prayer for the safety of others still on the road.

Well... there are many that got their wish for a white Christmas. Me? I'm wishing for 40 degrees and sun all day tomorrow and the rest of the coming week.

Yeah, yeah.... bah humbug once again. HA!

Too weird for words........

Here in the Not-So-Great-White-North things aren't great. They aren't horrible, they're just not great. They're not white either. We have not had snow since the big storm in October. That's long gone and it verges on the spooky quite frankly. The humidity has been high and two nights ago we had rain with thunder & lightning! We're half way through December!

With the humidity so high we have been having fog that just may rival London's. I find it spooky in that "Maybe-this-is-the-end-of-the-world-and-we-just-don't-know-it-yet-because-there's-that-quality-of-oh-my-God-there's-something-in-the-fog!!"

You know what I mean... remember the movie from the late 70's? (I heard they made a remake but nothing compares to; "There's something in the fog!!" and Adrienne Barbour crawling around the top of a lighthouse dodging zombie pirates)

When it comes to standing at your kitchen sink while doing the dishes and the fog is so thick it appears like the house 20 something feet away looks like a shadow rather than something solid. It does bring a slight chill on.

At least it was in the high 40's yesterday. Sweatshirt weather. Today was really raw. Much lower temps and a vicious wind. It seems more like early spring weather!

I know a number of people that are crabbing about no snow for Christmas... I'm along the lines of, "So what's your point?" Yeah, yeah... Bah humbug me..." I guess it's just not so much that I don't like Christmas or stuff like that. It's just me being practical.

Others: "Snow at Christmas, pretty, fluffy oh my!"

Me: "It snowed. Heavy, slippery, oh crap." I wonder if I need more pain medications before I go shovel.

But I'll wish all of you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! (Oh... I'm not doing the Season's Greetings thing... it's Merry Christmas. If that offends you, well just get over it.) There... Bah humbug.