When craaaazy weather attacks

When it comes to weather, Syracuse, NY is known for its massive yearly snow accumulation. Each year, we compete (and usually cream everyone else) for a Golden Snowball award trophy and news crews trot out a few times between the months of November/December through... well, May, some years to film pieces on our incredible, edible (jaykay--unless you want to grow a third arm from all the Onondaga Lake pollution) snow. This winter was no different, and in fact not only did we win this year's trophy by a landslide (179.0" to Rochester's 127.0") but 97 consecutive hours of snow back in December brought a staggering 44.3" of that total dropping down on us. It was a long, cold, snowy winter here in the 'Cuse -- and while I didn't outright hate it, I was SO beyond ready when spring weather came knocking.

Only so much of this a girl can take!

And it's here! Finally! Shining sun, warm breeze, the chance to wear cute sandals and sip iced coffee while reading outside on my lunch hour... I've salivated over such things since mid-February, and now the time has arrived only to bring with it massive amounts of rain. The saying goes that April showers bring May flowers, and I do hope so but it's going to be awfully difficult for those flowers to grow if the ground is too wet to plant them in the first place. This has been one of the rainiest Aprils that Syracuse has seen, and after today I can't imagine it's going to get any less wet.

The day began with a damp, foggy morning which blossomed into a muggy, sunshiny afternoon. As 3:00 neared, clouds began to roll in, dark and thick and the air felt heavy with the promise of a storm. Not going to lie, I was super excited! Thunderstorms were an integral part of the spring and summer months for me growing up in central Ohio, and I sometimes miss the spine-tingling beauty they bring. Syracuse gets thunderstorms, of course, but not nearly as many and, during my 5 years as a resident, not quite as intense. I don't miss daily tornado warnings, but I do love a good storm. Which is why I was like a kid the night before Christmas as the clouds came in and the sky grew darker. And man, oh man, we were in for something wild.

Scary.

The "view" out the window during the height of the storm.

Through the howling wind, driving rain and curious whirling of the clouds (my suspicions on funnel activity were confirmed by reports following the storm.. I moved here to get away from that stuff, damnit!) it was the hail that truly stole the show. I've seen hail before, but never like this: 

Wild. Just wild. And thus begins spring in Syracuse... it's gonna be fun.

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Some thoughts:

• If you have a cat and would like to freak him or her out a lot, put on a workout DVD (and, y'know... work out). It helps if every occupant in the home participates at once, that way the feline becomes further agitated and confused. Just don't kick it - they don't like that.

• Snow is great. Snow is fun. Continuous snow for four+ days is.... pretty fucking awesome (albeit mildly annoying).
  

Monday morning

Tuesday morning

Wednesday morning (remember the bike from Monday?)

 

• Holidays spent away from my family are in no way as crazy or fun, but they are ridiculously less stressful. I spent four glorious days in Massachusetts with Terrell and his family for Thanksgiving, and it was heavenly. Delicious food (oh god, stuffing muffins... what has been tasted cannot be forgotten!), ridiculous SciFy movies involving evil bees, and a little too much money spent on Friday shopping (especially since none of it could be excused as necessary gift shopping). 

Respect the pumpkin turkey.

•  I think it's time for a new hair colour. Not that I don't like being.. whatever this is. But I think winter time deserves something else. I tried red last year but didn't really keep up with it long enough. Idk...

Roughly a year ago, I tried to become a leprechaun.

I feel like other people liked it more than I did. But blonde feels too summery, and without the sun to help keep the colour going I fear it'll just go flat really fast. Allison and Rachel will be visiting in the next few weeks, so if I'm gonna do it I'll probably wait until then so I can rope one of them into helping :D

• Christmas music has an incredibly short shelf life. I'm already sick of everything I have and it's only been about a week. -sigh- Still, there's one Christmas song I'll never tire of:

I'm probably going to make a post soon with my top ten (or five or... seven, whatever) favourite Christmas/winter holiday songs. It's a nice thing to do, and I like doing nice things. But until then, enjoy the stunning beauty that is Vienna Teng.

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