PNW First Winter

Having my first winter in the PNW was what I thought was going to be an amazing challenge. Well let's be honest I thought it would scare me s*******. From a girl who snow skied, surfer, scuba diver, sailing the list goes on.....any sport I did it. I had balls bigger than any man you knew. But here's the deal you pop a couple of kids out and you suddenly become aware of all the dangers God forbid anything should happen to me what will happen to those poor darling children? We put so many things aside in our life when other things become more important which is really not a problem until you're my age and you want to do something again.

 What it comes down to is now that I'm older even step stool poses a challenge. 

I found out that having no choice is really creating a challenge.

First thing I did was make sure I have the right tires on my car luckily it is a four-wheel drive vehicle snow ready. I got little spiky things to put on my shoes for when I walk. I learned that from an almost slip and fall hugging my mailbox for dear life. You all heard in my one post about my aha moment in the  home while eating my soup alone go back to read about that. 

The second thing I did do was when we had our first snow I got outside with my snow shovel large plastic but easy to use. And shoveled down the driveway now my driveway in itself is a challenge because you have two concrete stripes one for each tire and dirt in the middle. But while I was doing the job I got a little warm so that was a good sign letting me know that if you go out in the freezing cold you will get warm by doing physical work.

My next challenge was the drive itself. That was interesting some people are very cautious in the snow up here when they're driving but there are still a few Speedy  Maniacs. The beautiful thing about this city is that there are two lanes one is for the slowpokes the others for the people that want to drive the speed limit or a little faster and everyone is so kind about staying in the right lane. Now as you know when you get older your eyesight isn't so good so driving when it's icy is the biggest challenge so I usually will not go down any hills yet. Not so easy because I do live on a hill.

My son did give me his old snowblower which was quite kind and I did get out and use it on my driveway noting that the snow was being sucked into my snowblower and blowing onto my neighbor's driveway. At the time my neighbor was out of town so I really didn't care but when they got home and there was only a couple of feet of snow and their driveway had five feet I think they might have questioned it. The snow blower has been in the Garden Room ever since. Shhhhh

Okay the next issue was my feet. The bottom of my feet had started getting well let's put it this way a couple of toes I have gotten little red lines through them and had a little shooting pain. I of course immediately thought I had diabetes or neuropathy or God knows what else. So I immediately made an appointment for the doctors knowing I had a life-threatening disease on the bottom of my feet. Well within moments the doctor told me I had Chilblains this is something that happens when your feet get too cold and aren't kept correctly warm. 

So go figure that horrifying life-threatening disease was cured by getting warmer socks and thicker shoes. I'll tell you some of the things my mind puts my body through are crazy.

Now to put everything in perspective for you readers this last winter up north was very mild which of course for me was a gift from my higher power. Giving me the ability to live, drive, eat, and adjust to cold weather but trust me this coming winter is going to be a whole another thing they say it's supposed to be a mother.

All right I'm going to leave you guys with a few pictures of how beautiful the snow is up here and will continue on recapping 2024. God bless