Is Shoveling Your Car Out of the Snow Considered a Winter Activity?

To be honest, I can't say that I know all that much about many "winter activities" but there is one that I know about with absolute certainty. You can't bury somebody up North in the wintertime.

If you happen to be as uninformed as I was of this mind-blowing fact, please, please stand up. BTW, the italicized statement in the first paragraph also happens to be the first line of my novel, Whistlin' Dixie in a Nor'easter - set in snowy Vermont where the daily highs are oftentimes sub-zero for weeks and weeks at a time. I remember living there in January and the temp never made it past -25 every morning at 9:00 am when I took my boys to school. I had no earthly idea that Vermonters don't bury their dead in the winter. It never once crossed my mind. But they don't. The Vermonters keep their dead in a mausoleum until what they call, "The Thaw". Then they get buried. Then their families have to grieve all over again. That's, that's . . . well, that's just not for me.

Winter activities, winter activities, come now Lisa there must be something that pops into your mind! Honestly, I can't think of any southern winter activities but there are so many that take place in Vermont. Vermonters ice skate on ponds (not that I would ever consider doing that), they ski, they snowshoe, they even ice-fish. They also shovel alleys of snow around their cars so the snow plow can get the car out - an activity that takes Leelee Satterfield, the heroine of my book and a transplanted Southerner, five hours to complete. They use snow blowers to clear their walkways and get this - roof rakes to clean their roofs.

If any of these pastimes seem seem like they might take an extended adjustment period to get used to, you're not alone. Leelee Satterfield never got the hang of any of them. Here in the South, winter activities are more like winter blah-tivities. We don't really do all that much in January except hope for days like last Saturday when it was 60 something. Today it's back down to 30 something and the biting wind is ridiculous.

I do love a fire in the winter. Not that that's an activity or anything, but I love to sit next to one. As a matter of fact, I'm sitting next to a nice one right now at the Brentwood Library while writing my sequel to Dixie and I better get back to it if I'm going to remain a Novel Girl.

What's my cure for the winter blahs. I say take off and head to the beach! I'll be doing just that next week when I go to Rosemary Beach near Panama City, Florida for Girl's Getaway Weekend. And I can't wait!!!!!!!!!!