I am reaching “that certain age” when, at last, I can call things as I see them, as curmudgeonly as that may make me. In the past, I’ve tried to be diplomatic about my feelings for the month of February (see Heaven Help Us, It’s February!) but you know what? I just don’t like the month very much.
It doesn’t help that it’s a day longer this year, although we’re doing our best to celebrate Leap Day as it comes. And, it doesn’t help that, in the final week of the month, we’re getting a dumping of snow!
We got a little snow Wednesday. Note streaks of snow in the water, shaped by the current (Photo: Mark A. Zeiger).
Worse, it’s a big snow on the way to a serious, some might even say nasty, thaw. As I write this, we’re about an hour late from a Big Switch that should bring high southerly winds and enough rain to turn this late snow into a giant slush fest.
Yippee.
It is beautiful, no doubt about that. Michelle and I went out to take a few photos while she measured the snow for our weather records (10″) and I attacked the pile on the solar array. I forgot that I didn’t mean to clean the panels so much as remove some of the snow before it became heavy with rain; I did remember to take a snow shovel with me, to start with that, so that I had room for all the snow that I would next remove from the panels.
The calm ocean has gotten covered with snow. You can see it shaped by the current in the photos. Within an hour, the whole, viewable expanse of water was coated with snow with holes punched in the slush by passing sea lions.
A better view of snow in the current on Lynn Canal (Photo: Mark A. Zeiger).
And, predictably, the wood pile has gotten thoroughly snowed on, despite being under a roof! After I finish writing this, I need to gear up and go sweep, so that the wood will stay somewhat dry.
It could be worse. Aly’s in town, where she reports a foot and a half of new snow. The plows went by the place she’s staying, and bermed the driveway in, locking up her car till she digs the berm out.
I’d much rather just brew another cup of coffee and hunker down, to wait. February won’t last that much longer . . . will it?