In Like a Lamb

Well, if I had known winters in Connecticut were so warm and snowless, we would have moved up here years ago!

LOLAMODO!*

We know, of course, that not all winters in Connecticut are like the one that has just ended. We know this because when we were house-hunting last winter, there were some homes we might have liked except we could only see their roofs.

Honestly, winter was one of the real trepidations I had about this whole home ownership thing. The shoveling…the snow blowing…the buying of a snow blower…the liability…the slipping on our 45-degree driveway and sliding on my ass all the way to the bottom before coming to rest in the path of a snow plow that would bury me and no one would find me until spring when my family would discover why our dog Toby was so fond of peeing on that particular pile of snow.

Back in the fall, when people asked me how I liked living in Stamford, I’d tell them that I really liked it so far, except that I was never in the correct lane when passing under I-95. Then I would say that I was reserving judgement until after the winter. And, certainly, when we got 15 inches of snow in October, I was thinking, "Uh, oh," and asking questions such as "What’s the difference between a snow blower and a snow thrower?" and looking at all the various models online while wondering which type would be least likely to cause serious injury.

But then winter never came.

Instead of spreading snow melter, I enjoyed gorgeous sunrises over the pond on our neighbor’s property. (It’s what the real estate ads call a "seasonal water view;" once there are leaves on the trees, the pond disappears.) Most of the winter it’s actually been warm enough to take Toby squirrel hunting and sea gull poop sniffing down at , which is right on Long Island Sound, where it should be absolutely frigid during the winter. We had people walk by us in shorts and t-shirts in December.

But there are two downsides to having one of the warmest and snowless-est winters on record: First, the jury’s going to have to be out for another year on whether I truly love living here, in a real house, without a condo staff to shovel my snow.

And second, nobody’s going to want to buy the "I Survived the Winter of 2011-2012"  t-shirts I had printed up after the October storm.

*Laugh out loud at my own dumb opening. I’m proposing that "lolamodo" be a word if for no other reason than that it is fun to say. Go ahead, say it out loud. Experiment with putting the accent on different syllables. "LO-lamodo." "LolamoDO." My favorite is "LoLAmodo." When was the last time you go so much enjoyment out of a word?

For more on our adventures as first-time homeowners at age 57, and moving to Stamford, visit http://theupsizers.wordpress.com/