Oh, You Lucky Snowbirds!

[Linda Batey]

There are several things that are expected when one lives in Maine and not necessarily in a good way. Take winter for example. We know it's going to be cold (this morning it was 2 whole degrees) and that snow will be involved at some point. In the last few days we've received a foot and are told to expect another major storm within the week.

Snow is so pretty to look at, especially the light fluffy stuff that has settled on the tall spruce and fir trees. This morning's bright blue sky makes the perfect backdrop and the birds that have found my feeders flutter here and there. I'm enjoying this beautiful morning--I don't have a reason in the world to go out in it.  My husband, however, is not in a very good mood. 

We have a pellet stove and store our pellets out in the garage. It takes about ten bags to get us through a week in this frigid weather, so on the weekends he carries them in. Our garage is a good forty feet from our front door.  He also has a whole lot of snow to move around. The walk needs to be blown out, and the snow is so deep on the deck that he'll load the snowblower onto a sled and drag it through the snow so he can blow off the deck as well. We have a large deck and right now it has about two feet of snow on it. 

His goal for the morning was to book our airline tickets for our March getaway to Ft. Lauderdale. He's been dreading doing that task because (a)he hates to spend money, and (b) tickets are very expensive, especially out of Bangor International.  Anyway, he got them booked, with my ticket bringing me home a week after him. We have a daughter and granddaughter in Miami and I'll spend a week with them. Lucky me!

We belong to a (for rural Maine) a large Baptist church and come December there are a lot more seats available because of the annual migration of our "snowbirds".  Someday SOON I hope we can join the snowbird migration. I'd love to leave right after Christmas and head home the first of April.

I wonder what the snowbirds are doing right now. I can tell you what they're NOT doing and it involves snow.