The Break-up WARNING: It's ugly!

So we have started the thing that they call "Break-up" around here.  I find it funny that they call it break up.  Seems like a weird term to me.  When I think of a break-up I think of the movie with Jennifer Aniston and Vince Vaughn.  Two people trying to make the other miserable to justify the split. A relationship gone horribley wrong. I don't tend to correlate it to melting snow and ice. 

I STAND CORRECTED!

It is the perfect word to describe what is now happening to my beautiful Winter Wonderland.  You begin a relationhsip with everything being that beautiful wonderland of peace and ease.  For the most part you can get around well and everything is beautiful.  Then something taints the water...a problem...in our case the temperature rises.  You get a chinook wind and the ice arrives.  The relationship gets harder to navigate and you find yourself slipping all over yourself.  What is going on?  I want that Winter Wonderland again?  How can this be?  You see hints of it, but you cannot find it.  We get a snow and it is nice for a day...then it disappears again.  There is no stable ground in your relationship. 

Then the unthinkable.  The temperature rises and you know there is no turning back.  That Wonderland you had enjoyed is gone forever.  Now the question is?  Are we ready to break-up or try to make this work?  Do we really want to say goodbye to the snow or can we work it out.  This is where a relationship gets really messy! The battle continues until a solution is made.  It is ugly and messy. We are in our break-up with Winter.  Such a perfect word to describe this.  As a friend commented..."This one is pretty messy...perhaps it should be renamed the divorce!"

We have some amazing pot holes.  I suppose you still call them that eventhough it is made of ice, not pavement.  We have puddles that look like lakes.  We have parking lots that have rivers running through them.  We have piles of dirty disgusting snow everywhere.  We have tons and tons of dirt left from the snow to give traction on the ice.  We even get air pocketing happening on the underbelly of our snow piles.  It's like a mini glacier in your own yard.  You can hear the water running beneath, but you cannot see it.

This is the iceburg and troughs that we had to dig to allow the water to melt beneath.

Ugliness lines all the sides of the roads.  There are even areas of town that are designated snow collection areas.  Mountains of snow!

ON A BRIGHTER SIDE:
We are having much more daylight.  We have light from about 5:30am dawnish til around 9:30pm dusk.  It is a bit crazy I have to admit.  Visible daylight is 15 hours 28 minutes.  We are gaining by about 5 minutes a day.  The kids no longer need flashlights or even nightlights in thier rooms.  Time for blackout curtians.  But, without the sunlight and extended days, we never would melt and "break-up" around here.  So it truly is a blessing. 

We have discovered our driveway! Well, part of it.  It's pavement in case you wondered...I did.  And we have wild strawberries lining it.  What a pleasant suprise!

Walking on the snow paths has become a bit interesting.  It's like walking on quicksand.  Sometimes you feel stable just to discover...maybe not? ... nope...and at that very moment it is just too late...you are thigh high laughing your head off histerically.  Oh, to be light as a feather just for a season.  The kids banter across the snow with ease.  I drudge through sink hole after sink hole trying to keep pace.  This is my girlfriend and I after finding such a sink hole.  Cracks me up!  Yes, I am that terrible photographer that just had to get my finger in the picture.  Perhaps it is becasue I was laughing so hard. 
                                           


ROADS-  As many of you know...I'm not the best driver.  Here it has challenged me even more.  First the snow and ice.  Now, as roads are becoming "visable" you discover that there are no line markings visible.  It has become interesting driving on roads and not knowing how many lanes it truly has.  There are not markings!  So many times I find myself counting tire markes to discover if I am in the "right" tire lanes!  It is quite funny.  I will be driving along and hear a horn honk at me...yep...I was pac maning it again.  So I am hoping eventually these visible roads get visible lines to help those of us that are new here and do not know exaclty how many lanes each road "really" has.  I am also suprised to find out that roads that I thought were two laned in the snow are now four.  Who would have thought.  I don't think I am going to know my way around when it all melts.