The snowiest winter in memory?!

Some of the "newbies" are asking if this has been the winter for the record books. Not really!  Do check out the photos on Martha Weathers' FACEBOOK page!  Pretty amazing!

About twenty years ago we had had very little weather, just enough to keep the ski area open and even they had been in the snow MOVING business - from the roads in the Pinecrest Campgrounds into a dump truck to take it to the ski area and spread around!  Creative and necessary at least until MARCH. 

The snow started falling and didn't stop until mid-April.  The ski area could have offered skiing into JUNE, but unfortunately ski season only lasts until the trees and daffodils start to bloom in The Valley (that is the San Joaquin Valley for those of you in other states!)  All thoughts of winter sports cease when the Spring Little League, Spring Soccer, and gardening begin!!  The Cal Trans crews began the "Spring task" of opening Sonora Pass at least as far as Kennedy Meadows for the fishermen anxious to cast their lines into the high and cold rivers on the "OPENING DAY!" 

The opening of fishing season in the rivers is normally the last Saturday of April, but I had a call just last week asking how the river was?  I said that the river was cold and high since we had had over two feet of snow at that point.  "OH," said the fisherman on the other end of the line, "well, is there ice on Pinecrest Lake, can I fish there?" after I had explained that fishing on the river was not allowed until the last Saturday of April.  I wish that I had a video of that intrepid fisherman wading through two feet of snow to try to catch one of the wiley trout in the depths of Pinecrest Lake, especially since we were expecting wind gusts to 50 MPH!!  That would make a wind chill of ten below zero!! 

We took a drive through western CO and eastern UT in January and came upon twenty or more hardy fishermen drilling holes in the ice of a large lake so they could enjoy an ice fishing contest!!  I guess that it is all in your "mindset" whether fishing is a summer only sport or something to enjoy all year long!?  I prefer to set my mind on a good book by a crackling fire and avoid the windchill!

My son was remembering the winter when the snow from the roof of The Strawberry Inn was in such a large pile that you could have washed the dining room windows on the river side of the building by walking on the top of the snow, and the downstairs rooms were dark as a cave until you turned on the electric lights!

Memories are made of this!  Hope that you are making GREAT MEMORIES this fine day where ever you are setting your mind.

CONFUSION reigns!

Mother Nature is not sure if it is WINTER or SPRING!  We had rain, corn snow, sunshine today, and all in three hours!   The skiing was fantastic according to the locals - 6 inches of new snow on top of all the old stuff that has been here since Thanksgiving.  No wind to speak of but a coolness belaying the fact that it is March after all and Spring is just around the corner.

I overhead the grand daughters talking on Saturday about what they were going to WEAR at 8th grade graduation!  "Of course we will have gowns covering it during the ceremony, but we will look nice afterwards!"  GOWNS for 8th grade; we called it CONTINUATION in Denver when we were that age; we were EXPECTED to continue with our education!  The Graduation event is June 2nd and here locally 8th grade graduation is big stuff with a dance afterwards and even a trip to Washington DC for a number of them, and some 7th graders get to go on that trip also.  It doesn't seem possible that those cute little babies are lovely young ladies now!

Life is sometimes like our weather today - confused.  Are we in the prime of life or the beginning of the end?!    Some days it is easy to find the sun, sometimes you have to have patience.  Come August we will be wishing for moisture, rain or anything to quench our thirst for variety in the weather department!  

"One Day at a Time, sweet Jesus, one day at a time!"  -  old Jazz spiritual!  We must be thankful for each day - the present is a gift!