We’re snowed in today.

Technically if we really wanted to get out and about we could.  But what is the point?  Most everything in town is delayed or closed.

Something I wonder about since moving back to Ohio.  Why does snow seem like such a surprise every year to the schools and the snow plows?  They know it’s coming, but then re-act with a “wow, where did this come from?” attitude.

 Maybe it’s just me, but I remember a lot more snow falling here when I was a kid.  We experienced the blizzard of 1976, (ok, the year may be off a bit but it was the biggest weather event of my life at that point).  We lived in a trailer with my dad and his girlfriend.  The furnace went out, so we huddled in front of the stove in sleeping bags.  Later that night, the wind blew so hard it knocked out a living room window.  Before my dad could even cover the window in plastic, the wind drifted the snow up over the window to the roof of the trailer.

The next day, we kids burrowed out said window making a tunnel in the snow.  Not because the front door was blocked, but because it was what good white trash did.  Why go through a door when a window is more novel? hahaha

The night of the blizzard, after the window breaking, and the furnace quitting, we lost power.  The electric oven we huddled around went cold.  My dad lit the kerosene heater, the one which always gave me a massive headache when lit inside.  

Maybe the thought Ohio received more snow when I was a kid is like the ideas my family members have of wearing feed sacks for dresses, walking five miles to school with no shoes, in snow five feet deep, uphill both ways! Hahahaha

I read once that however a person spends New Year’s Day…so goes the year.

I hope this isn’t a year of the dead for my family.  Most of my family spent several hours at a wake/memorial for my uncle’s brother.

I wonder if this will be a big year in the faith department for me.  Yesterday two young men knocked on my door.  Each wore a black trench coat and suit.  It was windy and cold.  In my humble opinion they weren’t dressed for the weather.

Name tags identified them as elders with the Church of Latter Day Saints (LDS).  Elders at the ripe old age of 19, haha.  MORMONS!  They asked me the standard “Are you familiar with the love of our Savior?”  I told them I was thank you very much…and I was also familiar with their faith.  Not an expert mind you, but having read most of the book of Mormon, and having several friends who follow the faith, I know a tad.  Enough to know it’s not for me.

As I stood in the door watching them shivering two things entered my head.  Ted has a son in Las Vegas doing missionary work.  I can’t do anything for his son, but I could do something for these boys.  Second, I remember LW talking about inviting them in and chatting and how much she enjoyed it.

I invited them in to warm up and share a soda.  We talked for a long time.  They are living in another town, and get to drive instead of riding bikes.  They snickered about some of their brothers out riding bikes in the snow.  Snickered in a good way, the way men talk smack.  Like they were letting me in on a little inside joke.

I was shocked to learn they could only call home twice a year over the course of their two year mission.  They email their family once a week though.  Still, I thought it odd.  They explained family takes their minds off the mission.  I don’t usually agree with sending teenagers out without the benefit of their parents, but I am sure there are facets to this I am not seeing.  I offered to let them use my phone to call home if they wanted.  (Just call me a suburban temptation, heh.)  They politely refused, but I got the feeling the newest kid might have taken me up on the offer if alone.

I know this has no bearing on anything but….when has that ever mattered?  Both of those boys wore veneers on their teeth.  I’m talking big white shiny ones, like Demi Moore’s mouthful.  It reminded me of starving Ethiopians, the way their skin stretched over their skulls and the teeth seemed more prominent than the rest of the face.