Maybe having a few peaceful hours was worth the effort?
Playing could have been sledding down Parker's hill, or running around the multiple frozen pathways in the wetlands behind the house. Parents never came, we were on our own. I'm surprised we never got hurt rambling through sticks and trees, and other unidentifiable and frozen swampy things. We'd clear the snow with brooms and then pretend to skate in our boots, or the older kids would actually don their pretty white leather skates and give it a go. The patches of ice were interrupted every few feet by little grassy mopheads, which made navigation difficult, but we still had fun. We'd build snow mounds and forts. We'd get soaked to the skin despite my mother's preparations, and be back in the house for new mittens several times throughout the day. But not new snowpants. They stayed dry and warm.
Maybe it is the amount of snow we currently have or maybe my aging brain has had a neurological hiccup and is releasing a last gasp of a childhood memory. Whatever the case, I've been remembering what it felt like to walk (or waddle) in my little blue snowpants, to feel and wriggle my feet in the smooth plastic bags inside my boots. To have wet, snow-clumped mittens on my fingers. To ride a wooden sled, belly down, as it careened over the recess at the end of Parker's hill, causing a bumpy vibration that made your teeth hurt. When all the mittens were soaked, the outdoor play was over. We'd warm up with hot cocoa made with heated milk and a big dollop of Fluff. Haven't thought of much of this in years and am amazed that the memories are still there. Isn't the brain weird?
Back to the snowpants. I wish I had them now because then I surely would be fearless in standing in hip deep snow, scraping down my roof and dealing with the massive ice dam (damn!) that has formed along the birdroom window. I'd trudge out on my flat roof and remove the 30+" of snow piled up there. No problem. Alas, I do not have these treasured industrial snowpants anymore, and have too many reasons why I can not attack Mother Nature with the vengence I feel in my heart. I have to rely on others to rescue my poor little "house on the prairie" with such drastic weather events. Sigh. I can still have cocoa, though, but now it is the instant kind, and I have to pass on the fluff.
Here's hoping everyone is dry and warm, and that their house doesn't turn in to a spongy puddle when all this starts to melt. Instead of digging in your snowpants, what will you make today?