Snowed In

I can remember watching snow reports with so much excitement when I was younger. In a family of skiers, snow was a pretty big deal. Even if it wasn't snowing at home, we'd call the snow report for the mountain every morning, and if it sounded particularly good my parents would call us in sick so that we could go play on the mountain. This was, of course, assuming we had no major projects or presentations we would be missing and that all of our homework was caught up. Definitely motivation to keep up with your studies!

The first snow of the year at home was always exciting as well. For one, there was a chance you'd get a snow day and not have to go to school, which meant sledding, hot chocolate, snowmen, snowball fights, and possibly skiing (can you tell that skiing was a big deal for us?).

Whatever the circumstances, snow was something to be celebrated until about March, when we were all tired of being cold, the skiing was starting to get crappy, and we were making plans for summer vacation. Then we'd be sad to see snowflakes. Never in November.

North Dakota has changed this view.

I will admit, I still feel a little bit of child-like glee when I take the dogs outside and they go romping through the drifts. And there is way more snow here than we almost ever had back in Oregon. And I can't say I was too terribly upset that I couldn't make it to work today because of the road conditions.

What I am upset about? No riding. If I can't get to work, I obviously can't get to the barn. I'm not really sure how much I'm going to be able to ride around work in the next few weeks either. Daylight is pretty short around here, and although the arena is indoors and lit (a key selling point on choosing this particular barn to board at!) I don't know if I want to be driving back up the highway that long after dark every night.

I really want to try out my new winter gloves!