Friday, December 28, 2007

Churchill and Snowfall

Today it literally rained Silver Dollars. Silver Dollared size snow, that is. It started early this morning, just a bit of mixed rain and sleet. As the morning progressed, the precipitation switched to snow. First, small flakes, gently drifting towards the ground. Then it gradually became heavier. And wetter. And before we knew it, the light flakes had switched over to penny sized balls of moist snow and were falling thick and fast.

After a few hours, the snow was so heavy and wet, the branches, trees, rooftops, cars, fence posts - everything visible - was covered in 6-8 inches of heavy, wet snow. The snow had clumped so much together, and the mass of it (especially on high places, like trees and gutters), caused snow ball sized clumps to fall.

So yeah, it was coming down in Silver Dollar sized clumps.

And if you weren't careful - you would get hit... lobbed by a tree.

But it was beautiful (and slippery to drive in!). Thankfully, Nathaniel drove me to the pool, and then did some shopping on his own (very mysterious...), and then returned to pick me up later.

The snow fell thick and fast throughout the day. It was beautiful to watch...

And there was even a new Big Bunny Track sighting in Waukesha. You never know where that bunny will turn up (green boxer shorts and all!).

So what's with "Churchill"?

Nathaniel told me a funny story, that I thought was great. Pardon me for not quoting it exactly ver be tum, but bear with me. I'm doing my best, and it's funny anyway. So enjoy!

Winston Churchill was at a party once, and having a great time. Rumor had it, that he had enjoyed a few too many fine beverages, and was beyond inebriated. He was drunk, potted, sauced, gone, finito.

Some woman, who apparently had quite a large stature, commented on his state of drunkenness.

"Winston," she said. "You're drunk!"

Without missing a beat, he replied. "Yes, but tomorrow morning I shall be sober. And you will still be ugly."

So there you have it. Winston Churchill had a great sense of humor, was a quick wit when drunk, and it snowed silver dollar sized snow flakes in Waukesha.

It's great being on vacation, up North, and spending lots of time with family and loved ones. I hope that you all get to experience the same joy and laughter that I have!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Marit,
Believe it or not, we are not too far from you at all. We only live 45 minutes south of the WI border...so we got those big snowflakes yesterday too and about 6" of snow. :) By the way, there are a TON of good triathletes that live in that Waukesha area...I have some clients up there too. VERY nice area. Glad you are having a nice time! JenH.

Anonymous said...

Hey. You're family's Vanocka bread looks a lot like our family's German version called Stollen (the o should have an umlat). I no longer get any because of my gluten intolerance, but wow is it some good stuff!

Marit C-L said...

Jen - the snow is awesome! Perfect for building a snowman and lobbing snowballs at unnamed relatives... and I know there are a ton of fantastic triathletes up here... I had the honor of watching Heather Gollnic win IM Wisconsin back in 2003/2002? (the first year of the race) - and have seen a lot of pros on race start lists from "New Berlin" and "Waukesha". No doubt, another tribed "hot spot".
Alicia - the Stollen sounds great! And no doubt, probably very similar to the Vanocka (there's supposed to be a hopchek over the C, which makes it sound like a "ch"). Great stuff - we eat a lot of dough in the process of making the bread... very yummy. I know about your gluten intolerance... it would be interesting to see if there would be another way of making a gluten free stollen/vanocka-type bread... again Alicia - love the new blog layout. Very very cool!