So much useless snow...

Hello, friends! 

Growing up in Southern California, I didn't have a ton of experience with snow. Every now and then, we'd take a family trip up to the mountains and I think I went mountain camping with the scouts once or twice, but other than that, I didn't see snow a lot, which was fine by me. I remember the first time I saw legit snowfall my first year of college. It was a sight to behold for sure. 

Since then, I've seen a TON more snow. As someone who loves to bike, these months can be pretty tough living out here in the Midwest. One of the things I've learned about the differences between living in Nebraska vs. Missouri is that once the snow falls here, it stays for a while. Mind you, I actually like this better than the constantly icy roads that I saw in Missouri but either way, I'm not biking anywhere anytime soon. 

There are two things that have made living with all this snow tolerable. The first is snow tires. We live at the top of a hill and that first winter, it was a STRUGGLE getting up to our house. We were worried we were going to need to get new cars with all-wheel drive, but a friend of mine suggested snow tires instead and that did the trick. Every winter, we swap out our regular tires for snow tires and in the spring, we swap them back. 

While snow tires have made the snow manageable, but there's one thing that has made snow somewhat enjoyable... 

Igloos

One of my new favorite winter hobbies is building igloos for the kids. I basically pile up all the snow from our driveway and and yard, carve out a space for sitting, and if we've got the time, and the snow, I'll put a toboggan run on the top of the igloo for extra fun. The kids like it and it's pretty great seeing my handywork being enjoyed by the family. 

A few weeks ago, we got a DUMP of snow. It was multiple days with multiple inches of snow, totaling somewhere between 8-12 inches of snow. It was enough snow for the kids to stay home from school for a few days and SHOULD have been more than enough for an awesome igloo.

Here's the problem. Normally, I'd love to spend a few hours outside, piling, carving, and shaping the snow into some really great igloos and toboggan runs. However, this year, to go along with the massive amounts of snow, it's also been ridiculously cold. We're talking multiple days under 0 degrees. It's not safe to be more outside for too long in those conditions, so I just had to look outside my window longingly at what could have been... 

Weather reports for the next few days show that the weather is going to get into the 40's and may even hit 50 next week, which will melt most of this beautiful igloo material, meaning all this snow may have been for not. Instead of getting a sweet igloo out of the situation, all I may get is a sore back from shoveling... 

Snow is back to being the worst.

Have an excellent day! 

~Adam