Memories of a Winter Past

While walking home from classes today, I realized something.  I miss sledding.  As odd as that might sound, it’s true.  The days when I was just a kid and the only thing I had to worry about was whether or not I could out-sled my brother.

Now that I’m old(er), it seems like the simple things I did as a child no longer happen.  I told myself I would sled sometime soon.  Only one issue with that, though.  If you haven’t read my previous post, then you might not have known that Western New York has been having a warm winter.  Long story short, I can’t sled as I don’t have snow.  Now, I know I could make snow or travel elsewhere, but that requires more effort than I’m willing to put in.  Thus, I shall wait and, from the looks of it, I might have to wait a while, too.

Seeing as I haven’t gone sledding in what seems like forever and I already told you the sledding story about the mouse in my pants, I’m going to share another sledding story.  Only, this one is far more adorable.

If you’ve ever seen Balto, you know it starts with the main human character – Rosy – getting a sled and musher’s hat.  Well, when I was around that age, I wanted to be a sled dog musher too.  So, for Christmas, I received a similar set of gifts from my parents.  I got a large sled, the dog-to-sled harnessing equipment, and a real “musher” hat.  As you could guess, I was in just as much bliss as Rosy.  Only, unlike Rosy, my sled dog wasn’t very excited about the new gifts.  In fact, she hated them.

But, being the stubborn little kid that I was, I rounded my dog up and brought her out to the hill I mentioned in My Sledding Adventure’s Twist.  At first, she was overjoyed to be roaming free and wild.  Then, I pulled out the harness and gear.  Her brown eyes just looked at me saying, “Are you crazy?”

Apparently I was, as before I knew it, I had her all hooked in.  Eager to try my mushing skills out, I pointed forward and yelled, “Mush!”

…

“Mush!”

…

“Uhhh… go?”

…

Meet with a frozen dog, I stepped out of my sled and walked to the front where my dog was standing.  Now, before you think I have a lazy dog, I should point out that she’s a Yellow Lab named Sara.  So, mushing isn’t really in her nature.  She’s a bird dog, not a sled-puller.

I tried to get her to pull the sled even without me in it and, well, she still just sat there.   She sat there for hours just staring at us until we unhooked her.  Even bribing her with food didn’t work.  Heck, she didn’t even care that I was petting the cat (she really liked to play with the cat).  Nothing worked.  Sara just wouldn’t move her butt!

In the end, there was a lesson to be learned.  We learned that if we didn’t want our dog running a muck, we just had to hook her to the sled.  Sara learned a lesson as well.  When the sled did come out, she headed for the high hills and the trees in the woods.

Warm Winter Worries

I’m not sure how many of you have been following the weather for those of us living in Western New York, but, if you haven’t, let me tell you, it’s been a really weird winter.  One day, the temperature will drop into the single digits and the next, it’ll be sunny and in the upper 40s.  It might snow one day and the next day it’ll rain.  It’s all over the place!  It’s almost like Mother Nature doesn’t know what she wants to do.  Not that I’m complaining….

I hate to admit this, but I do like the lack of snow.  I would usually be one to argue that snow’s amazing.  But, since I’m attending college this term and I have to walk to classes, I can’t complain about a lack of cold, white stuff (AKA: snow).

In case you were wondering, outside my bedroom window there is green grass.  No snow in sight on January 23, 2012.  Pretty amazing.  Today, I didn’t even have to wear my winter jacket!  It was so nice out.  I feel like it’ll be bathing suit season any week now.  Okay, so that’s pushing it.

But, I am a bit concerned with this mildly warm weather this winter.  I’m worried winter will come into “play” when I would rather it not.  We’ve never had snow in July and I would like to keep it that way.  But why worry about something like that?  Well, I blame the bees.

So, let me step back some and explain why I’m a bit worried about a massive amount of snow potentially dropping.

Back in the fall, I was hiking around my family’s land when I stumbled upon a beehive.  One of those ones that’s high up on a tree branch.  The kind of hive you would see Pooh Bear going after.  Anyway, I saw one ridiculously high up.  According to old tales, the higher off the ground the hive is, the worse the winter.  In other words, the deeper the snow.

When I saw this, I thought we would be in for a really harsh winter.  Wouldn’t you agree?

It's rumored that the higher off the ground a bee's hive, the harsher and deeper the winter.

Maybe the old tales are just stories used to scare kids.  But I can’t dismiss them just yet.  I’m still a bit worried that the bees might know something we don’t.  So, if you’re from Western New York, keep your shovels handy.  Snow might be around the corner.

My Sledding Adventure’s Twist

While I was tearing down my Christmas decorations and setting aside the generic winter ones, I had a memory pop into my head.  It’s quite the story, so I decided I would share it with all of you that stumbled onto this post.  Let me start off by saying, to this day, I still don’t know what happened to it.

With that out of the way, let’s jump into my story….

It was a fine day.  The snow was perfect.  The ideal sledding snow, that is.  And, my brother and I were getting geared up to trek out into the wondrous white world that called our names.  With assistance from our mother, we bound out of the house and into a large snow bank beside the house.  There we were.  Two black blobs just as happy as could be.  But we wanted more.  More, more, more!

Going back into the house, we called forth mother and asked if she would join us on our sledding adventure.  Sure enough, she accepted and was soon wearing her winter gear as well.

While she was dressing, my brother and I journeyed into the garage to find the sleds.  We had several, so we had to get them all because what kid, in their right mind, wasn’t to remember to pull the sled back up the hill.  We decided things would be so much easier if we had multiple sleds to pick from.

Emerging from the garage, we put on our biggest grins and declared a race.  First one to the top of the hill would be the first one down.

Now, before you think this hill was right there, let me explain it was a good seven-minute hike to get to our sledding spot.  I mean, we had the small little rolls, but we wanted to go down the BIG hill.

Panting by the time we got there, my brother and I decided we needed to test out the speed of the sleds.  We each drew up a sled and readied ourselves for the climatic start.  When mom yelled, “Go!” we took off.

Our sleds barreled down the hill.  Faster, faster, faster!  That’s when I hit the bump.  My sled made an immediate veer to the right, which was going to… CLASH ME INTO MY BROTHER?!

Thankfully, be bailed sled before the crash happened.

Needless to say, the sledding lane I went down was ruined and “off limits” for the remainder of our playtime.  Despite being down a designated lane, we still had a blast.  Although, the best part of the sledding was not the actual sledding.  No, no.  It got much better.

While at the top of the hill, I had made a comment about seeing something move.  Seconds later, there was a mouse on my foot.

Yes.  A mouse.  A real, live mouse.

It’s little beady eyes stared into my for a split second.  Before I could even squirm or kick it away, the little bugger decided to… run up my pant leg.  By that point in time, I was screaming, flailing, rolling, and laughing.  Screaming because I just had a mouse run up my snow-pants.  Flailing because there was a mouse in my clothes.  Rolling because… well, I thought it was an effective way to lose the mouse.  And laughing because it was, without a doubt, the funniest thing that could happen while sledding.

So there you have it.  My sledding adventure with a… twist.  Now, like I told you at the beginning, I still have no idea where the mouse went.  None of us saw it leave, not even my mom who was watching the event as it unfolded.  And I didn’t find a squished little critter in my pants either.  Needless to say, it definitely brought a little excitement to my day.  To this day, whenever I think of a mouse, I think of that moment in time.  Okay, I think of a few others, but those mouse stories are for another time (and for when I know my mother isn’t going to be reading this).

Out of curiosity, have any of you encountered a mouse in such a bizarre fashion?  Share your story if you have (as I would love to know that I’m not the only one that had a mouse run up my pants).

See that hill in the distance? That's the sledding spot.

Deck the Halls

It has come to my attention that I haven’t posted an adequate number of pictures for the holiday season to give you a feel as to how I’ve been decorating.  I’ve been raving how I love the holidays, but there isn’t any hard proof, yet!

So here’s your proof.  These are all photographs I took this Christmas.  I’ve also linked a few fellow bloggers’ posts about the holidays, too.

The blogs:  ComfySpace, ozimages, chaoscookiesandlaundry, mspedagogy, and  ilovegalway.

Can you name this tree?

Backyard with a light coating of snow.

Just some of the decorations around the house.

Our special tree. Notice the missing lights?

One of the decorations on the main tree.

Another decoration on the tree. If you look closely, you can see it says, "Daughter's First Christmas."

Precious Moment figurine decoration.

Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!

YES!  YES!  YES!   There is finally enough snow at my house to take pictures!  About time!  It’s the middle of winter!  However, there is one little problem.  I’m stuck at work.  Go figure.  Now, the last time it snowed and I was in this predicament, I waited to take pictures and I got nada.  It had all melted away by the time I got home.  So, I got up a bit earlier this morning (more like I was awoken early due to the snow coverage and the desire to have “extra time” to drive to work) and took a few shots of the wondrous coating that dusted our road and brought about a nice blue hue to my backyard.  For the record, I didn’t edit these.  My camera just captured them this way.

Oh, I guess I should probably state that I was inside the house taking these shots, which is why they aren’t anything spectacular.  I wasn’t about to go outside with dripping wet hair and no winter coat (I’m in the process of buying one).  So when you’re viewing these, imagine sitting in a nice, cozy, warm house.  Now if only I was sipping some hot chocolate….

Anyway, enjoy!

I was playing with my camera last night and took this from my bedroom. Pretty neat if you ask me!

Here's a shot of the snow from the living room window.

Here's what my backyard looks like. Can you tell I have a cat?

Here's another view from the kitchen of our backyard.

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

It was December 9, 2011 and I wasn’t about to get up early on my day off.  You see, I have Fridays off this quarter and it was my one day to sleep in as late as I wanted.  Granted, it wasn’t that late.

Needless to say, I awoke to the rays of sunlight peeking through my blinds around 9:37AM.  Now, being a bit too cozy in my bed, I decided to reach for my iPad and perform my morning routine — check my e-mail and, of course, visit Facebook.

When I first landed on Facebook, my eyes widened with pure joy and excitement.  “It is finally here,” I said sitting up, talking to no one but my iPad.  With great leaps and bounds, I flew over to my window and pressed my nose up against the cold glass to peer our at… grass.

GRASS!  Freaking green grass.  That was what my eyes had landed on.  It’s everywhere.  But, being an optimistic, I figured that Mother Nature forgot to dump snow around my apartment.  With that state of mind in place, I decided it was time to gear up for my trek to the other side of campus in search of this snow that everyone was talking about.

I cracked out my winter boots, gloves, scarf, and hat with kitty ears.  I even wore layers so I would be set for this true-winter experience.

Heading out the door, I drew in a deep breath and awaited the cold that would brush against my face and turn my cheeks a rosy red.  However, that sensation never came.  Not only was I bummed about missing the snow, but I was also upset that it was warm outside!   It was sunny, which meant all my snow had melted.  I was also dressed way too warm, so I spent the rest of my day stuffing articles of clothing into my backpack in a last-ditch effort to cool myself down (and to not look like a fool).

Anyway, I missed the first snow of the season.  It was a huge bummer.  Maybe next time I won’t sleep through it!

Since I missed the snow, I decided to show off one of my decorations, as I figured you wouldn't want to see grass.

Breaking the Ice

Christmas decorations.

Hello and welcome to my blog!  For those of you that don’t recognize this username, I’m the artist Wavikz (wah-vics) from deviantART.  As I’ve listed on my dA (the abbreviation for deviantART) account, I’m a double major student at the Rochester Institute of Technology.  In case you were wondering, art is not one of my majors.  I’m actually working on a technology degree as well as a communications degree.

Now, before you make any assumptions, let me explain what I’m doing here.  This blog is part of a class assignment, but, at the same time, I hope to continue with it after the class wraps up this February.  Why?  I think it would do me some good.  I know many fellow artists are always connecting with their followers and I think this might help enhance me not only as an artist, but as an art-lover, too.

For the purpose of this ten-week class, I was told I needed to pick a “topic” that my blog posts needed to revolve around.  Being a country girl and having a winter birthday, I decided that I’ll be posting on the winter season, which can include winters in New York, Mother Nature’s frozen beauty (assuming it ever snows), holiday celebrations and traditions, and so much more!  I look forward to spreading my winter season cheer with you.  Feel free to comment on my posts and share your thoughts.  If I get enough chatter about a topic, I might just dedicate a post to said topic.  So, don’t be shy.  We’re all friends here.  :]