I talked on the phone with my sister yesterday. She said that she has completely had it with Winter already. She has a vacation in the Caribbean planned for the beginning of March and she can't wait. (Must be nice.) According to weather.com, at 9 a.m. the temperature in the nearest city was 0 degrees Fahrenheit. Since I'm about 20 miles north of the city I'd guess I'm at about -5.

Even though the cold bothers me, I much rather have a winter like this than the one we had last year, where it was in the 50s in January. I like snow. I think it has a lot to do with how fun it was for me when I was a child. Snow meant days off from school. It meant bundling up with 3 pairs of socks, long underwear and 2 pairs of pants, and stomping through the woods with my dog. It meant building snow forts and sliding down the hills in deserted cow pastures. Then afterwards I would sit in the kitchen and heat up by the radiator until the tingling feeling left my fingers and toes.

A few years ago my then five year old daughter told me that she was certain that Winter was not going to end this year. I told her Winter always ends, and she shook her head and said, "Not this time".

My bed was always cold in the winter. Our house was not well insulated and there was only one radiator in the hallway to heat the 3 upstairs bedrooms. When we children went to bed at night, we would climb in under the blankets and shiver until our own body heat warmed up the covers and made it easy to sleep. In the mornings I can remember my bare feet making that first contact with the cold floor. I guess my grandfather had it worse when there was only the fireplace. Mom says that they used to heat something up by the fire and then put it under the blankets for a few minutes before stuffing the kids in.

I was always loosing my gloves when I was young (well actually I still do). Sometimes I had to wear a couple of pair of socks over my hands and go to school like that. I really didn't care.

I don't do as much in the winter now that I'm older. I don't ski and I'm not into snowmobiling or snow shoeing. And I definitely notice the cold more. God knows I don’t enjoy driving at a snail’s pace while slipping and sliding over the road. But warm winters worry me. I keep thinking about that greenhouse effect. And while the insides of my nostrils are freezing and I turn my back to the nasty wind-chill I still feel good.

On the night of a full moon, with white snow everywhere it can almost be as bright as morning. On such nights when the roads are empty I have been known to give in to temptation and drive my car without the headlights on while the reflected light of the moon on the snow provides all illumination I need. It's a winter wonderland.