I can definitely say I'm tired today. After spending 5 hours cutting though a combination of snow and ice only to have my car unable to climb a snowy hill, combined with a 2-hour trip on foot to the grocery store, I can appreciate various things that I often overlook in a new way.

1. SUV's. As much as I don't like the cost of gasoline, t'were the hummer-owners who go the last laugh today. I can see why many families consider the big van / SUV a 'must have'. City-dwellers have a different problem, but if you're in the suburbs or beyond, it makes a big difference owning or knowing someone who owns an SUV. Most of the time it's not much of a benefit, but in a snowstorm like this it is invaluable.
2. Snow blowers. Probably not the best use of gasoline. However, 30 inches of snow over any significant area (not to mention a repetition thereof) moves beyond what I think I could handle with a shovel. Walking through town made me thankful they have 'em.
3. Refrigerators and dehydrated/dry goods. Dehydrated stuff isn't as good for you. But then again, toting 50 lbs a few miles in the snow isn't either, probably. I'd choose dry goods over miserable hikes any day. Likewise for the icebox; fresh is nice but there are only so many hours in the day...
4. Rock salt. I don't like what it does to runoff (or snow) - makes it all dirty and nasty - but man it is nice to have when your house faces the north. Iced up walkway? Not anymore. Compressed snow/ice? Breaks it in a couple of hours.
5. Being young. Seriously though, if I were a bit older, this might not have been a possible day. Youth is good for something, it seems.
6. Progressive shoveling. You think, 'Well, I don't have to go anywhere this weekend...' but really, unless you are a hermit, you will need to leave some time before the snow melts. Progressive shoveling (shoveling every few inches) makes the work lighter and frankly, keeps you from maddening idleness. That's a double plus.
7. Internet, email, phones. Being in contact when you can't otherwise be in contact? You win this round, internet and phones.
8. Living on a main road. Sure, getting snow plowed into your car is trouble, but actually getting the road plowed? Can't complain about that.
9. Having a snow-worthy car. Whether it is because my tires are actually not all-weather or because my car is too light, I can't be sure. Regardless, it would be nice if a half-inch of snow did not stop me entirely from moving. Maybe... snow chains for my car? IS that too retro?

I'm sure there are others. Also, I can't help but enjoy the photo opportunities. Now if we could only resume our usual schedules... but that won't happen. We're getting another storm in a few days.

It was quite a profoundly amazing night. I suppose there are some of us who are charmed by a mere blanket of white powder, but I think there is something beautiful about a night which is as bright as twilight, where the reflections of any lights are dispersed and brighten the landscape rather evenly. I recall that the Eskimos had a large number of words for snow - and the remarkable difference between the snow tonight and the snow a few days ago is the way it gripped things. This snow was extraordinarily sticky - grabbing and holding on the edges of things and again to itself so long as it remained frozen. The result was that trees became bedecked with white and their branches looked like the veins in a complex, gigantic ice-leaf. The snow did not just rest on top of the branches (which is usual even with very powdery snow) but clumped about every appendage - twig and bough alike.

Granted, the fact that we don't often get snow around here makes me actually care - New Englanders don't share my passion - but then again, this is more than likely due to the fact that a 2-3 foot blanket of snow contains so many different types that you don't get an experience of one sort of snow so much as an experience of a lot of snow that needs to be removed.

Snow adds an extra, exquisite (and perhaps guilty) pleasure it did not once have: jokes about global warming.