We all knew it had to come

Well we have been very lucky here in Oakmont and the Allegheny Valley for the last several years. We haven't had a winter like those I remember as a kid growing up for some time and it looks, depending on your point of view, that the luck has run out. The photo is of my lovely wife Linda out clearing the walks and digging out the car this morning. I have already had posting on Face Book scolding me for making her clear the walks and I hate to wimp out but my heart currently put show shoveling off limits to me. Maybe I'll buy her a snow blower for Christmas! :-)

I was born after the big snow of 1950 and all I heard about growing up was how much snow we got that winter and how long it lasted. According to my parents there was a flag pole in the base ball field across from our house where the borough dumped the snow that they plowed from the streets. According to family legend that year snow was piled up till only the ball at the top of the flag pole was visible. Further more, there was still a small pile of snow that had not yet melted at the base of the pole in late May.

Some folks call it an "old fashioned" winter and they love it. Me, I have never enjoyed winter not even as a child. I did like the thrill of sled riding on some of the steep hills that surrounded the area I grew up in. Unlike some kids I didn't have to travel out into the county to have a terrific down hill sledding experience. I only had to have someone posted to watch for traffic when I zoomed across an intersection and out on the ball field.

Even so, I never enjoyed being cold and wet. I had no desire to build snow men, snow caves or engage in snow ball fights. I did manage to get into a few snow ball battles on the way home from school a few times though.

I have always thought of snow as something that if you had to describe it to someone that you should have to take a book down from the shelf and show them a picture. Or if you were so inclined you could travel into higher elevations and "visit" it if you were struck with an overwhelming desire to do so.

This often makes me wonder why I have chosen to spend the bulk of my life in the Pittsburgh area. I suppose the love of family and the feeling of being "home" has been stronger than my distaste for standing ankle deep in slush while scraping ice off my car windows so that I could get to work. Don't let me dissuade you. Pittsburgh in general is a great place to live and Oakmont is about as ideal a small town as you could wish for. It looks like however from all of the predictions that have come from the local weather prognosticators that we are in for "typical" Pittsburgh winter this year and I guess I will just have to endure it with a smile.