I HATE WINTER!

Oy Goddess! We got hammered again starting last night and all today with not one but TWO storm systems that left a layer of frozen sleet and ice topped by three inches of slush and two inches of wet heavy snow. Now the temperature has dropped in the last hour from 33 to 21 degrees F. and will drop even lower, possibly into the single digits tonight. (Photo: Milwaukee Journal/Sentinel, the storm today - that's not me but it could be me -- see below) We didn't get hit so much in Milwaukee County (ha - tell that to my aching arms, hips, legs and back) - I get a lot of drifting in my driveway because of the prevailing winds so I often end up with more than a foot of snow when it's snowed 4 inches, which is what happened today. Away from the lake and to the north, the outlying counties got A LOT MORE ice and snow. Now with the whipping winds having shifted from the northwest to the northwest, there is lots of drifting, which is saying something because the snow is so wet and heavy. So while technically this was not a blizzard, forget that technical b.s., IT WAS/IS A BLIZZARD IF YOU'RE OUT IN IT! I left the office just before 3 PM and got home at 4:20 - it's normally a 50 minute bus ride and a 10 minute walk. Do you like being pelted in the face with sleet? Despite hat, scarf wrapped Arab style around my face and tightly cinched hood (so it wouldn't blow off in the wind), that's what my walk was like going to the bus stop this morning and coming home this afternoon. I'm just grateful it wasn't a 20 below windchill! I'm surprised I have any skin left on my face at all, it felt like it was being scoured off by millions of ice pellets hitting me in thost 25 mph gusts of wind. But even though it was a sonofabitch walking out there, I was glad to arrive home while it was still semi-daylight outside, because I had to walk in the roads for the most part, the sidewalks either being drifted shut or plowed over - or the snowbanks were piled too high where the corners were supposed to be for my tired bod to climb over. Needless to say, it's dangerous climbing over snow banks because you might fall backward into traffic, and if you walk in the road because you absolutely cannot find what is supposed to be the sidewalk, you run the risk of being run down by some idiot who is going too fast for conditions, or some idiot who didn't clean his windshield good enough, or some idiot who hits a patch of black ice and cannot control his or her vehicle, or some idiot who just wants to take out a pedestrian because he's a crazy asshole and it makes him feel macho, or some idiot who is driving drunk. Fortunately, there were not too many cars on the road, and I did make it home safely. Obviously, since I'm sitting here writing this! I now have about 20 inches of snow in my front yard - this is turning out to be as bad a winter as last year, which was almost a record here - I keep harping on it but hell, over 100 inches of snow in four months is A LOT of shovelling, people! Anyway, when I got home, I started shoveling. I shoveled for an hour, and gave up when my arms gave out. I now have about a 3.5 foot wide pathway from my front porch 40 feet to the road, and I attempted to shovel out the snowbank in front of the mail and paper boxes so I can get my mail and newspaper! They won't deliver if they can't get to the boxes in their vehicles. Which means no matter how badly the plow piles up the snow, I have to get rid of it - somehow. Even earlier than last year, I have now started a snow pile on the road to the south of my driveway, about midway between my driveway and my neighbor's to the south. Last year that's where I planted the bomb that finally got rid of that damn plow and plowman who tormented me all last winter. This season - thus far - they've been a lot more careful about not piling 10 feet of snow at the base of my driveway. Thus, murder paid off... Let me tell you, making that snow pile is no joy. I pick up a shovel-full of snow, then walk 20 feet south and dump the snow. Repeat 300 times to get rid of the average pile of snow the plows leave behind in my driveway. That SOB plow and plow driver last year deserved it. And if they treat me badly this season, I'll get 'em again, I swear I will! The temperature drop tonight and over the next 3 days means everything that is not plowed/snowblown/shoveled tonight will turn to solid ice. Believe me when I tell you I am not looking forward to the walk to and from the bus stop the next several days! At least my Christmas tree is up. And I treated myself to a Big Mac and small fries last night. Back on healthy food today :)