Snow

Just when you thought it was safe to think perhaps the days would get warmer, WHAM, we get another dump of snow.

This was the 2nd major snowstorm we got. Fortunately, it was my day off and I didn't have to drive in to work.

But it got me thinking how things compare to Malaysia. Our winter routines.

For one, instead of getting the torrential rains, we get snow blizzards. The good thing is you stay relatively dry. The bad thing is driving becomes a nightmare- thankfully we have AWD in our cars. Well, except THAT one. I did drive the Porsche in our first winter here; with winter tires I have to say the car did surprisingly well. I did get stuck only once when we had a 1cm layer of ice. I had to park the car 50 m from home and stumbled back.

The other interesting comparison is the snowblower. My dad had fun with this the last time he was here. Instead of the lawnmower, we have a gas-powered machine to clear the snow. It's just as noisy as a lawnmower, a bit more fun because you get to shoot the snow in whatever direction you want. Except your fingers risk falling off because of the cold. Or if you're dumb enough to stick your hand into the chute to clear the snow; I remember that one year when Vince from Singapore did a ortho-hand rotation here and he told us how many cases of these he was seeing. Apparently, even if the engine's dead from the compacted snow, there is still a lot of torque built up so once you clear enough snow it spins and rips your fingers off. Ouch.

That aside, snow's definitely a lot of fun. You get to make snowmen, have snowball fights. I'm still trying to teach Alli how to make snow angels by laying down on the snow and waving your arms and legs- however after our last incident with dog poop, she doesn't seem too keen now (yes, I know, I need to do a better job scooping up doggy do).

Anyhow, it's stopped snowing. I'm going to clear my driveway. If you don't see any more entries from me, it probably means I was dumb enough to stick my hand into my snowblower.