Opinion

Basking in the glow of the snow

Friday, March 24, 2006

While many people may take pride that McCook is the "Hot Spot" of Nebraska, I am at the other end of the spectrum.

I long for cold, snowy days like we finally experienced earlier this week; my spirits soar as the snow piles upon the ground. Only when the snow stops falling and the sun emerges does my mood peak and return to normal.

I acknowledge that I'm in the minority by preferring winter over summer and I may be one of the few people in the world who wouldn't mind being snowed in for a few days, even possibly a week.

It would be interesting to see when desperation set in; to see when everyone would go stir crazy from not leaving the house or the yard; to see how hungry a person has to be before they eat that final jar of flaming salsa in the pantry.

Of course, I've never been snowed in for more than 12 hours, so who knows where my mental status or level of patience would be at the end of a week.

Probably the same as at the end of Christmas vacation or the end of summer -- non-existent.

But rather than cursing the winter weather, snow days should be viewed as a rare blessing to try new things, to think outside the box, to try that unopened can of humus in the cupboard.

My family views snow days as a challenge, a challenge to see how much food they consume in a 24-hour period.

My entire family actually ate more during the two days they were home from school because of the snow than they do on an average weekend day. For every five minutes spent playing outside in the snow, they would spend 10 minutes in the kitchen replenishing their fuel supply.

Plus, there was simply more time to spend in the kitchen creating new and exciting dishes. Cookbooks that had never had their bindings cracked were seeing the light of day for the first time. Usually, we didn't have all the necessary ingredients on hand and the book was returned to the shelf, but at least the thought crossed our mind to make those sour-cream scones. (Who doesn't dream of those on a cold, blustery day?)

In fact, our supply level was fairly low. The only preparation my family conducted last week for the impending snow storm was the purchase of an extra gallon of milk. And that was out of necessity since a few of my children like to have a three-to-one ratio of milk-to-cereal each morning.

My rationale against stocking up was that we could easily get by for several weeks by living on what was just in our freezer and pantry. (While I hate to admit it, they both contain items older than several of my children.)

Taking it a step further: We could add excitement to our lives by cooking and baking with just what we had on hand.

For example, Rice Krispie bars could easily be turned into Raisin Bran/ Cheerio/Lucky Charms bars. Or, who could find the first recipe in the cookbooks calling for diced ham, salsa and rice? Challenges like those don't come up every day.

Despite hours spent trudging through the snow, pulling children on sleds around our hill-less yard, I know I gained at least five pounds during those two days in the kitchen, I mean, two days in the snow storm.

***

Until moving to McCook, I had never seen the snow piled into mounds in the middle of the road, waiting for later removal. I had encountered many small towns which permitted parking down both sides of the street as well as down the center of main street. But I had never seen the middle of the road filled with snow and perhaps I know why.

The snow was so deep and the piles were so high from this recent snow storm, seeing on-coming traffic proved to be difficult. Several times, I prepared to turn left off B street only to screech to a halt as I met an approaching car.

Alas, that "blind-spot fun" will be gone sooner rather than later. Road crews were hard at work late Thursday night removing those piles for their second home in a parking lot. Now, I'll have no excuse for my bad driving.

-- Ronda Graff assumes she's not the only one who noticed -- with irony -- that the area's only significant snow storms came outside of the official winter season.

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