A Few Thoughts Regarding Winter

My friends would say that winter has not yet arrived here in Massachusetts, but my California soul says that Jack Frost got here last week.  Unfortunately, I am surely the one who is wrong here.  But when the high for the day is barely reaching the mid-30's and the low is somewhere in the teens,  I call that winter.

We haven't really seen snow on the ground yet, unless you count a VERY light dusting that we got last weekend which didn't stick around after the sun came up.  I have been not so secretly praying that the snow holds off for awhile forever.  A California girl can dream right?

Sigh.

The problem is I'm pretty terrified of driving in the snow.  I don't have much any experience driving in snow and ice and I'm pretty certain that I'm going to be bad at it.  I keep being told I need to invest in a shovel, an ice scraper, and sand bags to weigh the trunk of my car down.  Oh, and don't put my kid in the car while it's running if the exhaust pipe is covered.  Carbon Monoxide poisoning or something.  Who knew?!?!  There should seriously be a Driver's Ed class for inexperienced snow driving Moms or someone could get killed.

And can we just talk for a second about carseats in the winter.  Let me paint you a hilarious picture.  Me, trying to buckle my toddler into her carseat when she needs five, fourteen, twenty-three layers on to walk out the door but then it's necessary to strip twenty-one of those layers off before buckling her into the seat.  All while I'm doing some extremely unattractive Mom-version of the Harlem Shake trying not to freeze my Mom booty off in the process.

I also don't own gloves.  Not a problem if you don't mind losing your fingers to frostbite.

Beanie hat hair is R.E.A.L.L.Y. unattractive.

I appreciate the stores being cozy and warm when I walk in from the freezing cold outside.  What I don't appreciate is beginning to sweat five minutes later under my above mentioned 23 layers.  And then having to make the choice whether to drip in sweat or show off my beanie hat hair.  Both are undesirable options.

The streams where I run are now starting to freeze.  I've never seen that before in my life, a frozen body of water.   It's really strange.  Speaking of my trail-running, I'm pretty sure those days are VERY limited.  Once the snow hits, we're done.  And considering that we went yesterday and I'm pretty sure I almost froze Ryan's face off, for which I still feel bad about today, we may already be done.

Can somebody please send me a "How to Survive Winter" manual?  You might be saving lives.  Thanks.

Sincerely,

The Frozen Momma in Massachusetts