The Laws of Snow Days

This was the scene from my window a few weeks ago.  Today it is quite different.  The sun has melted all the snow and, thankfully, strong winds and rising temperatures have taken care of the 'mud-issue'.

However, in thinking about the past siege of ice and snow and bitter temps below zero, I have come up with a short list which I like to call The Laws of Snow Days.

1.  Any body at rest will remain at rest until an external force makes it move.

Quite simply, if one sits in one's chair for an extended period of time, it takes a major event such as a need for food, or uncontrollable yawning to make the sit-ee get up and move from that spot.  I found myself sitting....and sitting...and sitting until the only thing that would make me stand up and move was Andy saying ,"Hey, let's have a cookie and some tea!"

2.  Any body in motion will continue in motion until it meets an immovable  force stronger than that motion.

When you put on your boots, bundle up your body until you resemble something from an Artic horror movie and go out on the ice, you will fall.  You will fall and continue to move over the ice and snow and rocks hidden in the grass until you hit some small hidden bush or random branch and then, and only then, you will stop suddenly.  It will rattle your teeth and make every bone in your body take notice.  The effects will last for days.

3.  Any plans that you have made of things to do when you are held captive in the house by bad weather will not be done.

I like to call this The Law of Inertia.  When I was making the big move from town to country I had a box made up of "things to do when I can't go outside."  I have a quilting frame, I have several paper projects and journals, I have knitting and sewing plans.  And did I do any of them?  NO.  I did not.  Instead, I read, did crossword puzzles, word finds, and rummaged around to find recipes to cook that were full of sugar and spice and lots of good things.  I cooked.  That is one thing I really excelled at during that time.  And my waistline shows it.

4.  If you try to warm your house with wood during sub-zero weather, you can really, actually, get it too hot.

Hard to believe.  We are not novices in terms of  heating with a wood stove.  Our trusty Warm Morning circulator is thirty years old.  We set it up when the cold weather started in.  The first day we built a fire we had to open up the doors and windows to get the room cooled down to below the 90 degrees it showed on the thermostat.  There is a learning curve here.  We now have a house that is approximately one quarter the size of the house we heated with wood in town.  Consequently, we only needed a fire that was one-quarter the size of the previous ones we had built.  We now have it down to a science, even though we do occasionally get it a little warmer than we like.  And, of course, there are always doors and windows available to moderate the sauna-like temperatures.

5.  You can always dream of spring.

There is a reason why seed companies stuff your mailbox with catalogs showing flowers and vegetables and all manner of growing things in the dead cold of January.  When you are looking out the window at a gray and windy day, the ice and snow and slush do not seem nearly as daunting when you have the vision of blooms and berries and bird song in your dreams and plans.

Spring is just around the corner.  Hold on.  It will come.