Here are a couple of pictures of Killington (the peaks close together) and Pico. I don't ski, but when I come home from work, this is one of the sights that can make my day. I've often tried to get Killington pictures on bright days and there is always haze that interferes. But on this cold, battleship gray day, I got the camera to believe. (And then Dell Image Maker and Picasa helped, more on the first photo than on the second.)
It looks like snow a-plenty, but Killington and Pico can make snow a-plenty. The natural stuff is in real short supply, because the snow belt decided to move south this year. Washington DC: two huge snowfalls in four days. New York City: blizzard conditions. Virginia Beach, VA: more snow than they've had in 30 years. Philadelphia: new winter snow records. Dallas, TX: a record for a single snowfall - twelve inches!
Meanwhile, Vermont is enduring a snow drought. Except for the southernmost part of the state, there have only been flurries since the New Year. The snow in our yards is dingy white, and crusted up. The snow we've walked on is now ice. The snow we've driven on is gray and dirty. We tramp mud into the house. I haven't lifted a snow shovel in weeks. Instead of a snow-covered car, I have a car encased in dirt. I will spare you a photo of the world's dirtiest brown car.
And it's cold. When there's no thick insulating blanket of snow, the cold in the ground moves into our boot soles, and into our basements and floorboards. Temperatures in the 20s are not frigid by Vermont standards, but it sure does feel a lot colder than 20 degrees.
Tonight Garrison Keillor was talking about the lack of snowfall in Minnesota. He said "The lack of snow is undermining our moral authority." Indeed it is. Our collective sense of winter self is suffering.
Cold, cloudy and gray. This is like winter in New Jersey. Phooey.
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