VD; no, not that one

Valentine's Day is tomorrow.  My husband has already admitted that he has nothing for me.  He's still alive, so no, I haven't killed him.  To be honest, I don't have anything for him for Valentine's Day either so we're pretty even.  Obviously, he hasn't killed me as I'm able to post.  To be fair, I do indeed have a small gift for my child's Valentine's Day gift, so we're not totally heartless jerks like that.

Actually, as you can tell, neither the hubby or I have big expectations for Valentine's Day.  We've been together for 11 years and some years we at least try to have a nice dinner together while other years we exchange small gifts or we just have hot sex together cause that is how we roll.  It works for us and obviously, we're happy together as hence the 11 years together.

I'm actually not one of those people who only considers Valentine's Day as just a made up holiday by the greedy card company corporations but I'm most definitely not one of those people who makes a huge production of the day either.  I might put on a red sweater, I might put a cut out of a heart on the door or fridge, I may pass out Valentine's Day cards or I might not even notice what day it is.  As a teenager, when I'd see couples who would give each other these expensive gifts to swear their forever love just to break up the next week, I ignored the insanity of it and would sometimes buy a brand new coloring book with a brand new pack of crayons and just color.  It was extremely relaxing and a past time that I still enjoy with my daughter though not just on Valentine's Day.  I kind of figure if it's your thing, enjoy Valentine's Day.  It's sometimes to look forward to after the cold weather of the winter but spring isn't quite ready to bloom and helps boosts the economy with all the random gift buying because who doesn't enjoy a small present every so often?  Honestly, a holiday that reminds us to show some affection to the ones we care about is okay in my book.  Granted, that's something that should happen every so often but I see nothing wrong with an innocent holiday like Valentine's Day.

On the other hand, Valentine's Day has broken up couples though.  Some people have these notions that it's supposed to be this super romantic night and when it doesn't happen, there's blame and break up.  Honestly, if a couple breaks up over something like a simple holiday gone wrong, they weren't meant to be anyway, whether there were already underlying issues between the two or because they find out they have different opinions of lifestyles and such.

My advice for Valentine's Day is take it for what it is--do something small to show the people around you that you care for them.  If you want to do something big for that special person, talk to them about it to make sure you're on the same page as each other and come up with something that both parties are happy to do or not do together.  If you don't have a special someone, do something in general to help your fellow people such help a neighbor, volunteer your time at an animal shelter or something small to pamper yourself.  So, enjoy Valentine's Day, cause there's no reason to be a heartless jerk.

We interrupt your regularly scheduled programming for this post

I'm a little early on this update but with so much happening in such a short time my mind is feeling overloaded so I figured I might as well unload it ahead of my usual posting schedule. I actually have enough on my mind that I may do at least one other post besides this one in the next week or so and it'll actually be on a specific topic that has some time relevance, but that may change.

The main topic for this post is snow or I should say the troubles of snow but to be even more precise--the troubles of more snow, as I've already posted a complaint about the current cold season. Like they say in those infomercials, "But wait! There's more!" Because with at least 7 inches of snow on the ground, Mother Nature decides to keep making up for all the light precipitation during the past decades' worth of winter seasons and dumps an ice storm on top of us. 

Of course, we lost power with all that weight on tree branches and old tree trunks hanging over power lines. No electricity for 3 days in 10-15 degrees below freezing temperatures is not fun. Lucky for my family, we only suffered for 1 night and spent the other 2 nights at my in-laws home. It's a good thing I get along with my second set of parents so well. My own parents refused to leave their house though. My father being from the old country refused to keep the portable generator on to run something like a space heater even though he admitted the cold was horrendous.  He also refused to go to a relative's house because he needed to make sure the basement didn't flood. My family survived though. The only good thing about them sticking it through was that they were able to watch my dog as I couldn't bring him where we were at because of the solitary life of the cat occupant. My daughter's beta fish wasn't as fortunate to survive the frigid air though and we had to give a burial to the sea. My daughter was very sad for a few days but Henry had a good life and we already have his successor, who she named Ponyo.

The worst of all about this is the fact that we're not done yet. There's another snow/ice storm to come that predicted to not only drop another 6-8 inches of snow but also another 0.10 of an inch of ice.

Honestly, I'm not sure how much more I can take!  My child has already missed about a week of school because of all the snow days and she's likely to miss another few more days at least. I'm already in the process of scrambling to get caught up in my work and projects. I don't really need another drop of winter precipitation to continue slowing down my progress.  

Winter blues

Yes, for the first time in my remembered life, I have the winter blues.  When winter is ready to make way for spring, I'm usually ready at the same time.  It's Feb. The groundhog has predicted another 6 weeks of winter.  The cold season is in fact still hitting us with ice, snow, temperature drops and more of it.  I'm sooo ready now for it to be done.  It's like the cold weather is trying to make up for the last 10 years of really light winter fall.

On the plus side, the last snowfall was at least wet snow and not the powdery snow.  Traffic-wise not the best but for snowman making, it's a blast!  My daughter has been begging to make a snowman since we've been back in PA.  We finally got the right kind and we made the best of it by making her snowman just over 6 ft tall!

(Yes, this is a picture taken by me!)

It was nice to be able to enjoy it while we could cause tomorrow it's just ice.  Another day of school off for her likely.  My husband might be forced to call off work.  I'm going to have to scramble to make up for another day of idle time.  I might just have to give up and drink a hot chocolate.   I suggest anyone reading this, make sure your chocolate supply is still good cause I made sure mine is stocked up!