Never Lose Your Sense of Humor

In reading my sister's prior post, which we were total Daddy's Girls, it brought up memories of winter time when we were kids.  We lived exactly one mile from our elementary school.  According to the school board, we lived on the wrong side of the street to get bussed to school.  We grew up on a corner and a very busy one at that.  So Dori and I had to walk to school and it was uphill, both ways.  I remember walking to school and having to say this to my teacher:

I looked like Randy from "A Christmas Story".  I did fall in a huge pile of snow once, measurable by the foot, and could not move.  I was stuck.  For real.  It was a Laurel and Hardy routine when Dori had to come pull me up.  We were in elementary school for Pete's sake.  Think we are tiny now? Thumbelina was a giant compared to us but we made it through each year.  But that wasn't as funny when we would jump off the little league dugouts into the super deep snow.  Oh wait...that's right...I didn't jump...my sister flung me off into the snow, face first.  Isn't childhood grand?  Especially when you're the youngest sibling and your older sibling is forced to take care of you?  Actually, I was a stinker for a sister and deserved several of the whompings I received.  That instance, however, not so much.

But through the years of living in the north, it becomes an "Eh, whatever" with winter.  So many a time I find myself rolling in laughter at those who live down south who only see snow when watching "It's A Wonderful Life".  Shut down an entire city for a dusting that melts within hours.  Funny stuff.  

It's even funnier when you see someone from the south driving up here in the winter for the first time, as long as you are not on the road with them.  But the funniest isn't the driving, it's when you have to get out of your car and walk across what you just barely traversed in your vehicle.  Grown men crab walking on their tiptoes to make it to the front door, priceless.  But even those who are old hats in driving during the winter are void of all sense of reason sometimes.

But there are ways of knowing who grew up in the north and who are transplants.  I hate the winter, this is more than true, but having been through soo many, you know how to prepare and roll with the punches.  For example, a new northerner...

Lifelong northerner would be stocked to the eyeballs by mid-August

We get a ton of those here in the Chicago area.  Stocked up on salt by mid-July.  I've had it snow on my birthday and leave a foot.  I was born in mid-April, my husband late April, still snowing.

Grilling happens all year around, period.  Shovel a path to the grill if needs be.  The choice of food to be grilled may vary slightly from above, but the thought has run through many minds.  Sorry Phil.

But through it all, one must never lose their sense of humor.  Winter can be lots of fun and it's a blast watching the kids go sledding, snowboarding, fort-building-trash-talking-snowball-fights, making igloos/dugouts from the 9-10 foot tall snowdrifts, snow angels, and the classic snowman. Growing up, we loved reading Calvin & Hobbes.  Love Calvin.  Here's a homage to the little boy that makes us remember how cool it really was being a kid.

And to those who haven't lost their sense of humor in adulthood, you rock.  We have a lot of front yardage, I think we can come up with something good...

Snowman on snowman violence...why can't we all just get along?

Frosty my ass...wwhoooo-aaahhhh

I wonder if this is Gulliver's twin in a parallel dimension

Henry didn't quite catch on as to what would happen if he lost the bet with Barry and Wendall

Answers that question

Being a major fan of Halo, this is nothing short of kick-ass

My all time favorite land animal

But no matter what you do to pass the time during the snow laden winters, always remember to never lose your sense of humor.  And always have a good stock of alcohol.