A Piece Of My Heart

Nano's Over! Back to Blogging!

December 1st Prompt
What are your thoughts on snow?

The first experience with snow that I remember was sledding down a fairly large hill with my dad when I was 5 or 6. Most of this is reconstructed from what other people have told me, but as I understand it, we were hurtling down this big hill, me in the front part of the sled, and him behind. I remember my eyes streaming with tears because of the cold air whipping into them, but I wanted to keep them open because it was exciting but terrifying at the same time. Then, I saw this tree coming up ahead. I heard this crunching sound behind me and then the sled felt a lot lighter as it continued straight for the tree. I heard someone yell, "Turn!" and then I had a face-full of bark and a bruised forehead. I was angry at my dad for bailing, but he was actually trying to turn the sled and lost his grip. I didn't sled again after that. Well ... that's not entirely true. I made one exception:

After my traumatic experience with the tree, my family moved us to Hawaii where my formative years took place. We didn't move because of the tree incident, but I was still thankful for this because snow was a far way away at the end of a journey up a mountain. I remember it being an all-day adventure just to see three inches of snow. We brought our boogie boards so we could sled down the hill by the observatories. It was usually a once a year excursion simply because it was so difficult to get up there. We had to borrow a neighbor's 4 wheel drive truck, drive 2 hours and then wait for 30 minutes at the visitor center to get acclimated to the low oxygen, then drive the rest of the way to the top on a road I remember as being terribly treacherous. We had to bring all of the warm clothes we owned and layer rain coats on top of sweaters on top of sweatshirts since of course no one there owned any winter gear. It was a blast though. It was mostly fun just for the experience of seeing snow, but of course we brought our boards up there for a reason. Kids would rip down rocky hills covered only with a few inches of ice, but I was mostly too nervous to try for myself (remember the last time I was on a sled). Eventually, after a few years watching other kids do it, I decided it would be my year to try as well. I went all in - running start and everything. I hit the slope, belly down on my board and careened down the hill. About halfway down, I could tell the snow started to thin out and I tried to stop, but of course the momentum was too much. I felt a big bump under the sled, dislodging my grip, and I tumbled the rest of the way down the hill. I ripped both knees in my pants, got a healthy gash in my hand, and tore a huge rip in the bottom of the boogie board. It had evidently hit a sizable chunk of lava rock (a'a), but from that day on, my Dad said the board got that way from a shark attack.

Now, I no longer live in Hawaii and am back in a place with snow, which involves adult activities like shoveling, auto-starting the car, and putting booties on the dog so she doesn't get frostbitten. I know you may call me crazy, but I actually enjoy shoveling. It is cathartic in a way, and it feels good to be working hard but not getting too hot (which is the main thing I have against working out in general). I also recently bought a new car that handles like a dream in the snow and ice, so that makes driving enjoyable rather than stressful as it had been. And watching the dog bound through the snow is what pure joy looks like. Plus hot cocoa and fuzzy socks. Yeh, I don't mind winter.

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In other news ... What's up?! I'm back at this blogging thing! Nano was obviously crazy busy, but I'm so thankful I finished my word count, and finished the book! It is so so far from being readable in any way, shape, or form, but it exists! I really need to give it some space before trying to edit though. I found that in writing it, I often neglected the sensory details, so those will need to be added later, and took several liberties with transitions. I needed to get my characters from one place to the next, and didn't want to take the time I should have to do to properly, but again, that's something I can add after. The main thing I'm proud of is that the skeleton is there and I reached the word count goal I had set for myself. Pretty proud of that! (My pretty graph is below ) It was crazy to me though how some bloggers in the Official 30DBC last month actually won Nano and blogged every day! Y'all are crazy! I'm jealous of how you did that. About the 30DBC though - if you're reading this, I'll get the winners announced by Friday, Dec. 7th. Jim and I are compiling the scores this weekend.

Take care all! I hope to be writing in here more often now
-Emily