SNOW!

Yes, it is official -- we have about 4 inches here in Upstate (probably more further north), and more on the way.

I woke up and looked out across the street at the big Antebellum mansion across the street, white bricks and green shutters, its hedges and ancient oak and maple trees laced with snow, and thought "how beautiful!" And then I thought "Thank God I don't have that sidewalk and driveway!" (I live in a stately, but much smaller abode...from which the view is fabulous.) Also congratulating self on procrastinating on raking up the last of the leaves....now hidden under a pristine mantle of white. Excellent mulch by spring. :)

Let the scraping, shoveling, slipping and sliding into stuff begin. Great for the law business with all the personal injuries of the season (much as the rainy season in San Diego used to be - curse the traffic, love the bad drivers!), but by March, I will be fed up and wondering what the h[eck] we were thinking moving back here. Oh well. For now I am sticking with "beautiful."

As I sit here, I see Man and Cub frolicking about in the yard with the hounds, and from this vantage point it is hard to tell who is having more fun. My poor baby is nothing but a ball of fleece with two very pink cheeks, so I think he's just enjoying the ride but wondering why the Big Guy keeps making him touch the cold stuff. My 10 year old is attempting to be a musher...can't figure out why the "sled dogs" -- imagine, the intellectual one-two punch of Golden Retard and Labradork -- are having a harder time pulling this year.

I will have to explain this over hot chocolate, which I have yet to make. So off I go.

Happy Winter everyone!