The Great Storm of 2013

So we've been getting a lot of snow the last few days.  I've done more snow shoveling in the past week than I probably did in the entire month of December.  While my wife and boys are playing in San Diego--visiting Sea World as I write this--I am experiencing an actual winter.

Needless to say, when the weather report indicated that on Tuesday Night and Wednesday it was supposed to snow for 18 hours straight I took notice.  I wanted to be prepared for whatever Mother Nature threw our way.  Certainly, I wanted those coming out for our Church's children's ministry to be safe.  Wednesday AM came and there was less snow than I had expected, and the sky was reasonably clear.  The weather report had changed.  It always does.  We'd probably be just as accurate predicting Utah winter weather if we drew for lots, or read tea leaves, or through darts at the wall . . .   Anyway, the storm was now supposed to blow in at 4 PM and last until 11 PM.  Of course our evening church activities would be right in the middle of this.

After calling up our ministry leaders we made an early call and decided to cancel this weeks events.  Better to be safe given the prognostication.  Deciding early made it easier to alert as many people as possible.  So we made our calls and when late afternoon rolled around, shut down the building to prepare for winter's fury. There we were, home in our warm little houses, show shovels, and snow blowers on the ready, waiting for the storm to hit.

And we waited, and waited . . .

And the snow never came.  I woke up Thursday morning to clear skies and a clean driveway.  It's sure a good thing we kept everyone home last night.  I hope the enjoyed the break.  It certainly wasn't needed, but hopefully it was appreciated by our faithful workers and leaders.

I saw a quote the other day that describes the situation:

As they say in ____, "If you don't like the weather in _____, wait 10 minutes and it'll change."

(Pretty much everyone who doesn't live in San Diego says that, so fill in the blank however you like.)

Which brings me point out that my wife and kids are in San Diego.  Enjoying the lack of real weather.  You can talk about Marine Layers and Santa Anas, but really, come on!  I live in real weather.  I grew up with real weather.  And San Diego, you do not have real weather--(but it is a nice place to live).  Real weather is rain months (note I said months not days) in the Northwest, it is summer heat in Arizona, icy temperatures in Northern Minnesota . . . true story, when one of my sisters was born in Brainerd, MN it was 47 degrees BELOW zero that day.

So while San Diego is nice eleven months out of the year, I am happy to experience variety in seasons.  I believe it makes us hardier and builds character . . .

 . . . at least that is what I keep telling myself every time I step out to shovel the driveway again.



Update: Today it was originally supposed to snow.  Instead temperatures climbed into the 40s.  You might think this is good thing but I'm trying my best to keep the snow cave in our back yard intact until my boys come home.  I'd check the weather report for the next few days, but I'm sure it would be wrong.