struggling through winter

Let me get this out of the way: If it snows one more time I am going to break down and through a giant hysterical tantrum.

I was excited to move back to New England. I missed the seasons in SoCal. I missed the snow. I missed being able to mark the passing of time (nearly impossible to do with no seasons). In my little California-fied head I thought that like in Los Angeles, December and January would be rainy/get a little snow and by the end of January it would start to warm up. Like to the 50s. Clearly I was delusional. I stopped being able to ride my bike outside in September. I started wearing two pair of pants to run in November; the face mask made it's first appearance after Thanksgiving. It has snowed every single week since the beginning of December and no matter how little snow the rest of the state gets, my city gets a freaking foot! This is a lot more than I bargained for and that I was prepared to handle.

It would help immensely if my city and the college would do a better job plowing and shoveling. No such luck. Many residents do no shovel their walks and if they do it's a very narrow path from the front door to the street for the mailman. The college plows sidewalks leaving about 2 inches of snow which turns into ice overnight. About a day after the snow fall the college dumps half of the snow piles from the sidewalk into the street. Walking to work is a challenge - do I choose ice on the sidewalks or snow in the streets? I am very grateful that I have covered parking so I don't have to chisel my car out every week. My anti-lock breaks have come on for the first time in 5 years and it scares the crap out of me. About an hour after a snowstorm a couple of weeks ago the car in front of me slid into a telephone poll because the major thoroughfare in my city is never plowed. My city is out of money to keep the streetlights on, much less to plow.

Should I mention my athletic activities?? Snowshoeing has been awesome!!! So much fun! It's best right after a snowfall when the snow is still fluffy. Once the snow turns to ice or slightly melts the snow sticks to the cleats on my snowshoes. Not so fun. And running? A total joke. I am wearing 4 shirts, 2 pairs of pants, a hat, a mask and enormous gloves and I still can't get enough warmth to reach my lungs. My lungs hurt in the cold and cause my heart to pounds so hard I have to stop or I'll keel over. Even without the snow it's been really tough to find safe running routes that are well lights and have few cars. With the snow it's even worse. Running in even an inch of snow spikes my heart rate (again, until I either have to stop or keel over) and the snow clogs up the treads in my shoes making it even more slippery. I think the average temperatures of my morning runs have been about 15. My lungs are ready to collapse. I am having some health issues and the cold isn't helping.

I am not sure if I can live through another winter like this. I don't think my body can take it. Some people say this is a particularly bad winter while others say it's mild. I suppose it's all relative, depending on how much you like the snow. I like the snow but I like when it melts quickly after it falls. I like the snow when it doesn't snow for three days straight (December). I like the snow when it doesn't snow every fucking week. I like the snow when it doesn't melt into 6" of slop at every corner. I would like the snow better if we could just have a few week's break from it!!!