Winter.

On Saturday morning, we woke up to snow for the first time this season. My reaction? "Snow! SNOW! It SNOWED! There is snow covering the ground! Yay, it's snowing!" I excitedly planned the day's outfit around my new winter boots that I bought last year when they went on sale in February, but then hadn't yet worn because it never snowed enough after that to merit wearing them. (The same story goes for the snow shoes I got on clearance last January. Sigh.) Anyhow, since February I had been looking forward to wearing them because they are functional and stylish, which is almost impossible to find in a winter boot. (They are red-brown with a combat boot vibe and an abstract circular embroidery design on the side. Definite attitude.) So I decided that Saturday was finally the day to wear them out on their maiden voyage. I felt ready to embrace the fun of winter! As I had hoped, the boots were warm, but not too warm, even when I wore them inside a couple of hours. They are the perfect winter boots to balance out my blizzard-worthy (probably even artic appropriate) boots that are fabulous (and the best I have ever owned- I love them!), but sometimes they are just a little over the top for day-to-day average snow. And a little too warm to keep on for long once inside. But on Saturday, I felt prepared for winter. After all, as the Norwegians say, there is no bad weather, only bad clothing.

Yesterday, we went out to drop my car off at the garage to switch from regular tires to the snow tires, get the brakes fixed, and have an oil change. Within a few steps of the front door, I fell on the ice. (And yes, sadly I was wearing my new winter boots.) S pointed out that I had the spectacular ability to fall on the only patch of ice in sight. Though, to my defense, I pointed out numerous other places of sidewalk covered in ice. Thankfully, it was a pain-free fall and I continued to (carefully!) walk the half-block to my car, where I discovered that my side mirror had been knocked off and was dangling only by the electrical wiring, with a dislocated spring awkwardly jutting out like a broken bone. Evidently, it was victim of a hit and run by a sidewalk snow clearing machine. Though this was irritating, I quite like all the snow removal and winter machinery here, and we were literally on the way to the garage anyways, so I was only slightly grumpy about it.

Since the car was covered in snow, we began to look for a snow scraper in my car and realized it must be in the trunk. This is when we discovered the lock to my trunk was frozen. An annual occurrence in recent years, I suspect it will probably stay this way most of the winter, necessitating many months of awkward climbs over the back seat to release the lock of my hatchback trunk. (Or maybe just the inability to use the trunk all winter.) But what is worse than that is that sometimes all of the car door locks freeze. Last winter, there was about a week where I couldn't get in to my car at all. Not even when I used that anti-freeze liquid stuff. When S got back from the trip he was on, he solved this problem by buying a propane torch that we began to carry with us when we drove places, so we would be able to get in the car. The torch method worked well and we found it pretty hilarious to go over to someone's house, bringing our blow torch with us so that we could get back into to the car to go home again.

Ah, winter. Yesterday's trio of winter negatives surprised me since it was only day two of snow. But instead of holding a grudge, I guess I might as well try to welcome you since you are here to stay anyways. And I will embrace the urges for hot cocoa, fresh baked cookies, and fleece socks caused by the thought of blow torch weeks and the unworking heater in my car that has been repaired yearly for the last three years. But at least I have good boots. And cookie dough in the freezer, ready at a moment's notice.

Edit: Just found out that fixing the side mirror at the garage will be $60. For a used replacement mirror. Grrr. Makes me want to duct tape the old one back on.