After a sleepless red eye flight from LAX to CLE (for future reference, LA redeye flights are not a good idea!) and a forever drive home, we arrived Sunday, March 8th.
The weather was surprisingly mild, sunny, it even warmed up to I'm not even sure now…. maybe 40's??? But you know how warm that can feel with full sun? Hence, the slightly open roof! It was better to be welcomed by the sunshine than overcast skies. And yes, there was a TON of snow. Our playground was basically 1-2 feet under snow…. and progressively through the week it became frozen crunchy snow as temps began to decline again. Also, we arrived to a couple broken pipes and minor water damage from the furnace shutting off during one of the super cold nights we were away on vacation. We were lucky that only the pipes above the guest room and one in the master bath were damaged, that we were spared worst damage! Now we know better for next time, and will have a sensor system in place that will alert us over phone when the furnace shuts down again.
Okay, so after our sunny transition back into the cold….. March tricked us and brought more cold and more snow the rest of the month. Let me put it gently, the month of March BLOWS. It took me 2 weeks this time to get out of the winter funk and back to my regular self after we returned from our travels! Brad and the boys were much more resilient. We should have learned from last year and tried to be gone during this time or at least have another trip to greener climate lined up like our Charleston, SC trip. But we didn't, and that was a hard pill to swallow. Its that "vacation low" you feel upon returning to home, but also the huge psychological shift too. The best way I can explain it, is we were ready to escape the frigid temps mid February, took our Spring Break vacation in Hawaii, played on the sunny beach in CA, thus, psychologically we weaned ourselves off Winter! When March rolled around, and after 3 weeks of warm climate, to put it simply…. we were ready for Spring!! To have to regroup and get back into the winter mentality after an already 3 1/2 months of Winter, was a frozen slap in the face!
Especially, when this is what first day of Spring looks like year after year!
I don't want to complain or sound negative, but I will. I absolutely hate March. Its our 3rd March in WNY, and I hate it more each year. I keep trying to tweak our travel plans and escape the worst of winter, and now I am certain March is the month we need to be gone! Timing CA and our travel is KEY. I'm sure its also the fact that it is harder to come back from a vacation into a cold bare brown and white slushy environment. Most of the month it feels like we are trapped in a snow globe. The worst is that there is nowhere to run and hide. The whole east coast and midwest is under the same blanket of snow. You can be driving for hours and hours and still surrounded by cold. So is Europe. It occurred to me just this year (our 3rd Winter), that for most of the world (besides below the Equator, West Coast, and the Caribbean) it's Winter from November through beginning of April. Thats the reality and the norm. Even the South, including Florida, has its [less] frigid cloudy temperatures during this time. California is an exception. Its not the standard. Period. Once I face this reality, I feel much better….. because most people in the world experience seasons and have to deal with the cold…. Californians are oblivious to this. So yeah, March is the ending to Winter but it can be brutal and everyone is impatient and ready to move on to something else. I mostly miss the GREEN. I miss the green nature, the leaves on the trees, the forests, the pretty colors of flowers. We have days of beautiful sunshine and lots of it shining throughout our house….. its the green and colors that we are deprived of. I hate the brown. Brown bare trees, brown grass, mud, potholes, more brown slush, and potholes filled with mud the size of the grand canyon. LOL I think regular visits to botanical gardens, and stocking up on some indoor green plants for next Winter. At Christmas time we have a real, big, beautiful Christmas tree and home feels cozy and festive. Once the tree is gone, as are the decorations, the house can feel just as bare as the cold outdoors. So, I will invest in some real plants or palms next year. We also missed the boat on the winter Netflix experience. We finally signed up and realized what we have been missing! So that is how people hibernate around here!!! Catching up on movies and all the awesome shows without commercials is the perfect excuse to not have to venture out into the cold, and make for some fun evenings at home. Also, plan a Spring Break getaway. Even if its a hotel staycation somewhere in Canada or a big city. Even if its a weekend away at an indoor pool resort or a place that has museums and a lot of restaurants to choose from. Kids in the Winter love 3 things…. playing in the snow (and snow sports), watching their shows/videogames, and swimming in a warm indoor pool.
I say from now on, regardless of where and how long we are gone for the month of March, we will have a weekender planned at the end of March, or beginning of April. A weekender that will include a nice fun hotel (because our boys LOVE hotels) with an indoor pool or waterpark, and near a museum and restaurants. Sometimes just having something to look forward to, a countdown of the snow globe days, and getting out of "Dodge", does the psyche good.
So remember all of the above, and of course the company of good friends and the wine. These next few pictures show just that….. March is now a blur, for good reason! :-)
our beautiful snow globe on those frequent white wonderland mornings
pirate day at school! Arrr!
