Well, it's begun! The time of year when a healthy half of Upstate blogs are filled with all sorts of creative stories about Upstate snow. I wonder if anyone has ever done a study or counted statistics on how frequently we Upstate bloggers blog about snow from November to April? Even NYCO has gotten into the snow meme post-- and I've never seen a meme at that blog (unless I've missed one).

Never one to miss an opportunity to blog about something, especially snow, I shall take up the torch handed down from Northview Diary and present my ideas. I was just out driving in this stuff so it's all terribly fresh on my mind (and on my boots, and on my coat, and on my floor).

1. What’s the winter tool you can’t do without?

A: My oven. I need it running, almost all day. Not to merely bake things, which I do almost all day anyway... but it lends warmth and comfort in the winter (I grill outside all summer long). The oven helps keep the rest of the house warm as I bake. Besides, the smell of cinnamon apple pies and pot roasts and roasting chicken and fresh biscuits is the ultimate comfort when you are stuck in the house all day. Second choice: my furnace. Wish I had a woodstove, though.

2. The winter tool you could do without (i.e., find unnecessary or silly)

A: Where is that tube of lock de-icer stuff that sits in my utility drawer all these years? Does that stuff even work?

3. Your favorite music to listen to when stuck in the house in a snowstorm?

A: Are You Ready For Some Football? I love the sound of football playing in the background as I work in the kitchen. I don't watch the game-- I dislike football-- I just like hearing it. For some reason, it reminds me of those happy childhood days when we were off from school, my mother was baking pies, and my dad watched football all afternoon. It was so cozy.

4. The winter sound you least like to hear?

A: The ferocious wind that clatters past the house. My house is 150 years old, and not terribly sturdy. We had all the old, dead Maples removed that used to surround the house, so I feel a little safer. But how the house shakes and wheezes when that wind blows! The 100-year old windows rattle and sometimes I can hear the chinks of plaster tumble down the interior walls between the studs. Most unsettling. A close second: the snow plow roaring down the driveway. My driveway is 2 feet from my house wall, and I am terrified that the plow will strike my furnace-vent pipe that juts out on the side. Let's not talk about why my Furnace Guy let his son install the vent there...

5. Your driveway shoveling pattern: vertical (up and down)? horizontal (pushing from side to side)? Or any which way?

A: Shoveling pattern, huh? "Kids! Time to go out!" :D Since damaging my back several years ago, I can no longer shovel. My neighbor plows our driveway most of the time, though. He does it as a favor, and we let him dump his snow from his narrow lot onto a portion of our land. It's a nice arrangement. I haven't answered the question, directly. My old shoveling pattern used to be: start a path in the center of the driveway, essentially slicing the driveway in half. Then, go at each side at a time, pushing the snow on the right side of the driveway to the right bank, and the same for the left side. Quite organized.