First snowfall

. . . and already I'm OVER IT!

Sure, for the first couple of years up here, it was cute. It was beautiful. It was wondrous and special. It was white Christmases and sledding and postcard-perfect winter scenes, just like I'd always imagined it would be when I was a kid living in South Texas, enduring 70-degree Christmas days and such.

But now? After five PA winters, I'm kinda tired of it. Sure, it's still beautiful and wondrous, but

--Not at 7:15 in the morning, when I'm digging the car out from under a night's snowfall.

--Not when I can't park in my driveway anymore because it's a hill, and if I park at the bottom I'll never get back up and out. (Not that I would mind it so much, but my boss might have a little to say about my not coming to work anymore.) Now I have to park in the little pull-off space up top, and I get covered by the snowplows every day.

--Not when I have to drive slowly and carefully, running the wipers constantly, washing the mud and salt off the windshield and trying not to think about the salt eating the car's paint and underside coating, rusting it from beneath.

--Not when the arthritis in my right foot and ankle are really bothering the heck out of me from the first snowfall to the last.

--Not when it starts getting dark at 4:30 in the afternoon.

I'll admit that I still love watching the birds at the feeders in the snow. They stand out against the pure white backdrop like little brown and red and blue gems. However, the light's usually so crappy that it's hard to get a good shot.

I still love looking out at the snow on the trees and the mountainsides, the fields covered with white blankets, the night-glow of reflected white between the clouds and the snow.

But I gotta tell you: this snow business ain't all it's cracked up to be.