Snowless Winter and Adapting

This is the oddest winter, as anyone living anywhere probably knows. It is snowing in temperate, coastal France this week and here in the Midwest, we have fog and sunshine and rain. Unseasonal? Unreasonable! 

I worried in the beginning of the season...no snow? Warm weather? How would I cope? What would my winter be without the whiteness that brightens the brown landscape of December through April here? As time went on and we enjoyed more time outdoors without freezing our fingertips and noses off, the advantages of warmer weather were felt, even if I continued to glare at those who positively exalted in the absence of snow.

I have finally stopped glowering. I now relax, and make the choice to take each day as it comes. If it snows, we go sledding, enjoying the moment, because it will most likely be gone tomorrow. If it is 55 and sunny, my daily walk is pleasant, a trip to the skate park becomes urgent (for certain family members), and the garbage is much easier to take out.

In my region, we are so used to hardship in the winter; the shoveling and heating bills and cold toes, that we may have forgotten how to enjoy the simple things in life that come to us unbidden. A warm breeze on your face in January, the soft sound of rain in early February, the delightful sight of your neighbors out raking their leaves. Now that Candlemas has come and the light is growing stronger, the feeling of having been cheated out of winter could take over and make me nostalgic for the good old days; of 30 below temperatures and three feet of snow overnight. I could choose to worry excessively about global warming and ponder the dire fate awaiting us.

I will keep living in a green way and learning about our ecological crises. I have sufficiently mourned this year's snowfall. But I will also bask in the warm weather as I take my small dog for a walk through streets free of slush and snow and ice, and look to the coming spring.

Extreme weather sports

My world just got bigger and better. My husband brought home a pair of Yaktrax Pro Traction Cleats for Snow and Ice as an early birthday present. I had been hoping for a pair of my own since seeing them at a friend's house the other day. Her husband came home from a walk and I asked if things had not been too slippery. He showed me these little contraptions that slip over the bottom of your shoes. They had steel springs that dig into the snow or ice to let you walk without trouble over winter sidewalks and streets, whether or not you can see the path at all. The past couple of days, with temperatures of below zero, I avoided trying them out, but this morning Pierre pushed me out the door, despite 1 degree temperature and the 19 below wind chill factor.

I made my way down the street, cautiously at first, testing out the theory that even on ice I would not fall, going faster and faster, little by little. I only stopped to remove my glasses when they fogged up and froze, or adjust my scarf so that my face wouldn't fall off in the bitter cold. Soon I was up to normal walking speed, crunch-crunching confidently across snow, across ice, across icy snow, unshoveled walks and driveways, bumpy lumps left by the snow plow, you name it. I jogged along the bike path for a time, though I did not feel dressed for jogging with my bulky coat, pants and other gear. It was exhilarating, it was liberating, I was out and it didn't matter if no one had shoveled or if the city never cleaned the streets, I could walk, fast.

My husband has taken up extreme biking. Since we chose to become a one-car family, he needed to upgrade his equipment in order to make it to work in all sorts of weather. He added studded tires, some serious lights, a ski mask, snow goggles and an extra layer under his flannel-lined jeans. His Southern-French self is greatly enjoying being one of about three people around here to bike daily year-round.

So, before I hit "publish", I have to tell you that my son saw the title and beginning of the post and let me know, in that bubble-bursting way our children have, that walking was in no way an "extreme sport." I told him to re-read the title, it is "extreme weather" sports, not "extreme sports." He argued that no one would ever consider walking a sport. I beg to differ. It gets one's heart pumping, body moving and keeps one fit. And if you are out in twenty below temps, just breathing is a sport. Besides, it's not like I said I was ouii walking, for goodness' sake.