Winter in Michigan

 

It’s winter in Michigan, albeit about a month late.  “I’m dreaming of a white Christmas” was only a dream then, but I’ve still got my Christmas tree up and now playing that carol seems appropriate.  (I leave my tree up to celebrate His birth, until Easter, when we celebrate His re-birth.)  The snow falling is beautiful and playing the carols again is just great.

Other things, however, are not so great.

The first real snow came after a month of above freezing temperatures, so when the flakes hit the unseasonably warm ground, the first flakes melted, until the inches falling rapidly began to add up.  And up.  Meanwhile, the temperature went down.  And down.  Shoveling yesterday morning showed me my age, and I tackled the driveway with the very heavy snow on the bottom in three stages, with rest breaks in between.  Even at that, when I came to the last bit, the driveway between the sidewalk and the street, I called it quits.  It had the added snow and ice from the plow which had gone down my street.  If I were to tackle that, I’d probably need at least another 6 rest breaks.  So, I gave up.  It will melt, although perhaps not this month.  At worst, if another wave of snow arrives, I’ll be homebound, like the people I visit each week.  Maybe somebody will visit me!  But I did go shopping just two days ago, and I have plenty of food for at least a month, although I might have to start checking the expiration dates on some of those old canned goods.

Driving to church this morning, I drove some of the less-traveled main roads, or perhaps I should say I slid down them.  But at least I stayed on the roads, unlike many others, as the tracks off into the snow indicated.  The main roads had two tire tracks in the snow, and sometimes showed the bare pavement, but traffic was slowed.  And my car’s technology was in full swing.  The first was the lane guards, which sense when the car goes out of its lane, either over the right white line, or the left yellow line.  Unfortunately, when the early drivers drove over the snow, they couldn’t see the lines, and stayed approximately where they should be --- but my car’s technology kept warning me that by staying in the two tire tracks I was often going over either of the lane lines.  Later, after I’d driven a while in the single digit temperatures, the “Low Tire Pressure” indicator came on.  On my newly leased vehicle, it indicated the tire pressure in each of the 4 tires, and I had to respond “OK” to the message each time it appeared.  Oh well, at least my car electronics doesn’t have Alexa (or whatever other dumb name) TELLING me each time it warned me.  That would make me nuttier than I already am.

I can’t imagine how driverless vehicles --- soon to be forced on us by the government which knows everything --- would handle the lane protection technology.  Would it respond by steering the car out of the two rutted lanes and into the packed snow, and sending the car into a spin, or the ditch?  Ah, the wonders of technology that await us.

When I arrived at church this morning, the parking lot was almost empty.  I wondered if the mass had been cancelled, but people continued wandering into church up to a half hour after the mass had started.  The roads again, but then I saw all the bundled-up kids and realized the cold and snow could cause more problems than the driving ones.  Families seem to have forgotten how long it takes to get the kids ready for the extreme cold.  But at least the kids were still laughing at events, as only kids can.  They brighten any gloomy day, and remind us how very blessed we are, regardless of the weather.

NOW I will feel comfortable saying to people: “Season’s Greetings.” It is the winter season in Michigan.

Merry Christmas!  Now it looks like a Michigan Christmas.