Snow Forts and Food Coloring

So my last post was about the lovely feeling of spring in the air. My what a difference a week makes. I'm normally not moody about weather. I enjoy the seasons and I'd rather be cold than hot...until this winter. I've decided Fall is still my favorite season and Spring is quite nice as well. Summer and Winter I could do without. This winter has been really ridiculous though and every time you think winter is over, that four letter word makes news again: snow. Normally, I don't mind it. I love the first snowfall of the season. Being all snowed in with cocoa, a great book, and a cozy fire. This month though it seems like it's been rougher than before. Everyone seems to be complaining about it. Now it appears I'm included in that. So, in order to redeem myself and turn this frown upside down, I'm going to tell a little snow story from my childhood. In fact, I may even tell two.

The first snow story is from one of our first winters after we moved from Michigan down to Indiana. I had made a best friend, her name was Emily. We lived just down the street from each other. We would play together any chance we had. She was my first friend who got a Nintendo before anyone else. I was jealous. We used to skate in her hallway to Vanilla Ice and MC Hammer (it was the 90's and incidentally, it was a REALLY short hallway). Her house is the only place I've had SPAM (except for Hawaii but what happens in Hawaii, stays in Hawaii).

One winter we must have had a ton of snow because we built a snow fort in her back yard. This fort was pretty big as far as I can remember. We carved out a decent sized cave and someone suggested how to decorate it. I'm not sure who's idea it was to break out the food coloring to "paint" it though. In all honesty, it was most likely me. I was always coming up with "great" ideas so I'll take the blame for this one. We went into her house and brought out every color of food coloring her mother's pantry possessed. We squirted those little bottles until the snow looked like confetti cake...and so did our gloves, coats, and exposed body parts. The snow looked great. We, on the other hand, did not. I don't remember getting in trouble but I'm pretty sure I did.

Another winter we had a major ice storm. It knocked the power in our little town out for a few days. Somehow the local ice cream place and the candy store had power (thank goodness!). Emily and I would walk to both nearly every day of the summer or a fortuitous snow day. I remember this day because all of the trees and power lines were covered with so much ice they looked like they were made out of glass. The wind blew and the trees tinkled like a chandelier and creaked like they were about to shatter. I don't remember another ice storm like it.

So as of 10 minutes ago, another storm was supposed to hit dumping 6-12 inches on our snow logged land. So far, we've got not a flake or drop. Since I've brought my computer home, blogged about snow, and am other wise prepared, nothing will happen. Isn't that always the case? Now, next week I'm sure I'll be blogging about Spring again...Actually, I won't. We are going to a really special concert so I'm sure I'll be all excited. And just you wait until who you read it is.