Psalm for the 13th Month of Winter

UNCLE! I'm crying UNCLE! Please no more winter!!! Aughhhhh.... we're supposed to get another 1-3 inches of snow tonight followed by an Arctic blast of subzero temps this weekend. I just don't know how much more I can take. I'm beginning to feel like the psalmist who wrote Psalm 13 - "How long, O Lord, how long?"

So I have been inspired to re-write Psalm 13:

Psalm during the 13th month of winter
Prayer for Deliverance from snow
1How much, O Lord? Will you dump snow on me for ever? How long will you hide your sun from me? 2How long must I bear clouds in my soul, and have cold in my bones all day long?How long shall winter storms be forced upon me?

3Consider and answer me, O Lord my God! Give warmth to my body, or I will be frozen and buried, 4and winter will say, ‘I have prevailed’; the snows will rejoice because I am covered.

5But I trust in your promise of spring; my heart shall rejoice in your summer someday. 6 I will sing to the Lord, because he will melt the snow and send us some heat.

Pictures of my world

Thought I'd add some photos of this wonderful winter weather. Two of them are from one of our December snowfalls. I took them just because it was beautiful. One of them is from yesterday's storm. You can see the difference between the December storm and this one very easily. This latest snow is the heavy kind that loves to stick to your car tires and mire you down.

Speaking of.... almost noon and still no plows in my courtyard. A couple more neighbors of mine shoveled themselves out, but again I have no shovel. Plus, that's why I pay $135/monthly fees. Thankfully I have a flexible job (heck, I'm kind of my own boss....) and work that I can do from home. So I guess I best get to those power point slides for this Sunday's worship.

Hunkered down

Wow, I didn't realize that my last entry was in December! I'm sorry to have neglected you, oh lowly blog.....

It's just been so hard to get motivated for any creativity this past month. Between the crappy, crappy winter weather that has hit us this year, and some crappy, crappy stuff going on in the family, I have had no urge to write at all.

While I won't subject you all to the family stuff (just suffice it to say that my niece and her kids have been sadly affected by all the drama of January) I will use this opportunity to vent yet again about the crap winter we're having. I am currently hunkered down in my home, waiting for the condo courtyard to be plowed out so I can return to civilization. Guess I may as well write.

Yesterday was a first for me.... I had to make the decision to cancel an Ash Wednesday service due to the weather. Only once before have I cancelled worship for weather (in 15 years of ministry) and I regretted it. That time I caved to the fears of a few very vocal parishioners instead of just telling them to stay home themselves. The snowstorm blew through and we could easily have had our late worship that Sunday morning.

This time I was determined not to feel like that pathetic wimp who caved again. I held off until almost 2 in the afternoon to cancel. By then it was clear that even if the snow stopped, the roads would still be seriously unsafe for driving. It was a hard decision, because Ash Wednesday is one of my favorite services of the year. But when worship time rolled around and there was a good foot of snow on the sidewalk in front of my condo while snow still fell, I did not regret the decision this time. And when the late news came on reporting about hundreds of cars stuck on the highway near Madison for the night, I did not regret the decision.

Today the decision was still clearly the right one. I can't even get out of my house easily this morning. I watched one neighbor shoveling her stuck car in our courtyard (yes I felt guilty for not helping her, but I got rid of my shovel years ago!) I watched another one struggle to get out with her SUV, which is much bigger and stronger than mine. I see evidence that at least 2 other neighbors got stuck also, leaving shoveled patches in their wake. So I will patiently wait for the contracted snowplow guy to finally show up and clear my way. Max clearly benefits from all this winter weather crap we've been having, since it means I'll be at home with him asleep on my lap. But we have now surpassed the normal 50 inches of snow by more than an additional foot (and it's still early February.) I'm just so very, very tired of it.

If I had not promised my mother I wouldn't move away while she's still alive, I'd be using this time stuck at home to work on mobility papers for North Carolina or some other warmer climate. However, I guess I will instead keep feeding my mouth with hibernation food and crabbing about how sick I am of winter. The science of hunkering down....... sigh......