Oh, the drudgery of this Winter.

I went outside Monday morning and it was already snowing lightly and it continued all the way to sundown.  Those were light and fluffy flakes, but they glommed together to yield nearly three inches of fresh snow.

Now, if you’re a glass half-full person, we’ve made it halfway through January, and, on the plus side, the days are getting longer, but, let’s face facts … another two months of Winter are waiting in the wings.  A pessimist might say there will be many more days of a frosty vapor coming from your mouth when you exit the house, and steamed-up eyeglasses when you come back inside.

When I went out to shovel this morning it was beautiful – okay, I’ll give credit to Mother Nature who did a superb job of turning the dull and blah-looking landscape (since most of the snow had melted), into a Winter wonderland.  It was difficult to appreciate those efforts though, since snowflakes were twinkling down and settling onto my clothes the entire time I was shoveling.

I know we were spoiled by that nice November weather, but Winter has really become a drag at this point.  Not only those intermittent Arctic chills, but the snow and ice have all overstayed their welcome.

There were a few observations I saw as I meandered around the backyard, not necessarily looking for trouble, but  …

This morning was all about tracks and cracks.

In the front there were no tracks, unless you want to count those from my lug-soled boots while I hefted shovelfuls of powdery snow.  But, as I walked to the backyard, there had been a ton of activity with a mishmash of critter tracks in the freshly fallen snow.  There were the delicate bird feet that had alighted and left marks that only slightly marred the frosty surface and tiny paw prints of a squirrel as it scurried up and down the side of the house.  I wonder what critter made the odd tracks that looked like someone was playing “Xs” and “Os” … hmm?   Then, there were some tracks with a tail dragging behind it making a deep ridge in the bright-white snow.

Once that three inches of snow was moved away and cement exposed, the casualties of this cold/warm thaw cycle we experienced last week were evident, with cracks and fissures on the sidewalk, as well as where the porch meets the house.  I felt I could almost hear that crack widening as I studied it … crrrrrack.  Ouch!  The cracks did not crack me up this morning and I thumped the shovel down with a thud, then hurried back into the house to shed my layers and wrap  my fingers around a warm cup of joe.

P.S. – I am late getting this blog post finished.  I was typing away, when I heard a loud noise over an hour ago … was it inside?  Outside?  The critters in the backyard making mischief?  I finally went back to this post, but curiosity got the best of me and I looked on the Downriver Crime Alerts site I follow on Facebook.  The site had lit up with talk of the boom and the flash and I turned on the radio – the consensus is we had a large meteor explode here in Southeast Michigan.  Then I lost my internet connection for an hour.  Meteor dust sprinkled around?  Talk about things that go bump in the night.  All I can say is that I’m posting post-haste before anything else happens.