Mikes Place
By
Michael L. Craner
I like change most of the time, change is good. I love all four seasons, which is one of the reasons I chose to move to Missouri a few years back. I get a beautiful Spring, full of wildflowers, tornados, and best of all, a creek full of trout. Summer is nice here too, it gets good and hot, making days out on one of the lakes memorable, although it can get so humid it feels as if you could choke on the air. Autumn is absolutely gorgeous with all the colored leaves that have to be raked up just for your kids to jump in and scatter back about the yard…
Best of all I think I like Winter. Probably from growing up in Salt Lake with the beautiful mountains full of Olympic grade snow. I like to ski, though I haven't since '94 and I haven't even been sledding or tubing for 3-4 years now. I love the way the ice forms on the trees, turning them to glass, sometimes literally, since these mighty oaks around here seem to explode under the weight and forces of the freezing and thawing water.
But when I get it in my head that one season is over and the next has begun, I don't much care for insolent ground hogs telling the weather folks to hold up for another 6 weeks. Now most folks don't believe in what the ground hog says anymore, and they think meteorologists just report the weather, they don't make it, right?
I say BULL! Every year some fool with a degree in meteors gets on TV and misses some “surprise” blizzard that blind sides everyone… Then they make comments like “I've never seen it this cold!” Hmmm, try looking at last year's newsreels. Seems to me you said that just last winter. Then as the season progresses, they warn about more snowfall that never comes, and by the end of the season, they expect us to believe them when they start predicting MORE snow, TWO WEEKS in advance?
So you can see why I just shrugged off their warnings, I mean I had already been fishing, even broke out and wore the short-sleeves and run the A/C in the truck once or twice this year.
But like I said, I enjoy change, and I do love winter, so when I woke up Saturday and the world was white, that was fine with me. One last opportunity to do the slip-slide ride in the 4x4 and laugh at the other 4x4's that slide off into the ditches as I winched ‘em back out onto the road.
Then Sunday came and my wife woke me up with the good news, the coffee was ready, and the bad news, it took the last of the water because the water line froze. Again.
Got the water back on, half the snow is gone… Probably be completely gone by sunset tomorrow. Too-bad, we didn't have much this year, it would have been fun to go sledding, guess I'll just have to wait for next year.
Yep, change is good, with Spring coming, and tornado season with it, I stand to make a little change in overtime. Just have to remember not to park under any big trees this year…
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