It's winter!

Anyone living in the Midwest knows that it’s now officially winter.  Well, okay, not officially.  The “official” date on which the winter solstice occurs is 21 December.  But let’s not argue semantics.  The fact is, the wind has been gusting up to 50 m.p.h. today, with wind chills below zero.  There has been some snow; not a great amount, admittedly, but the blasts of wind have stirred up the snowfall to near whiteout conditions at times.  I’m sorry, but that sounds pretty much like winter to me, regardless of the date on the calendar. 

I went to St. Joe this afternoon, to see Nick.  After the visit, which ended at 6:30 p.m., my plans were to do a little Christmas shopping at Hobby Lobby, then on to a food store to pick up a couple of items for tonight’s (late) supper.   I did make it to Hobby Lobby, and had just started looking around when Roger called my cell phone (which was almost dead since I left it in the car while I was at the prison, and it got extremely cold…).  My husband, of course, was worried.  He urged me to get home before it got any worse outside.  After assuring him that I would be careful, I went back to shopping.  I did, however, cut my excursion a bit shorter than I had intended, because I really didn’t want to be responsible for causing him ulcers or apoplexy or whatever else.  I headed out to my car with my meager bag of purchases, stopped and cleaned off my headlights, and was on my way.  Or so I thought.  Can you believe I couldn’t see the exit back to the road from the parking lot?  After a bit of circling, the blowing snow finally cleared and I was again on my way.  Things were fine until I hit about the third stop light.  Oooh, that was a slick spot.  Thank goodness for anti-lock brakes, and even more – thank God for keeping the situation under control!

The highway, of course, was much better, and in fact, the farther east I drove, the less snow there was.  Being an old lady, however, I always feel perfectly justified in driving no faster than I feel comfortable with during weather like this.  In tonight’s case, it ranged from 40-50 mph.  Not that it was slick, but between the often severely limited visibility and the sudden gusts of howling wind, I just felt safer that way.  It wasn’t a bad trip, though.  I don’t really like driving in bad weather, but with God’s help, it isn’t really a horrible experience.  I keep the radio cranked up – either Air 1 or K-LOVE, and at those times, my entire world consists of the little stretch of highway right in front of me, and praise music.  Not a bad way to spend some time! 

Anyway, I made it home, and… well, here we go again with winter…