Where, oh where is the snow???

I woke up to the very first dusting of snow at my house for the year.

It's December.  That's pathetic.

Apparently as of yesterday Syracuse had just set a record for the longest streak with no snow accumulation - since February 23, 2009.  That's 276 days.  See here.  What is this, Florida?  If we want the golden snowball (I love that site) this year, we'd better start doing some snow dances.  Honestly, though, it doesn't look like Rochester and Buffalo are doing any better than Syracuse at the moment.

A few sad wet flakes that melt with the morning light hardly get us caught up.

Given how weird weather patterns are, I understand that it's generally impossible to attribute any single weather phenomenon to global warming.  For example, one of the effects of global warming is to cause the jet stream to do weird dipping and swooping things, occasionally bringing frigid arctic air into Syracuse and making all the commenters on syracuse.com say a streak of below-normal temperatures is proof positive that the global warming scientists are full of it. 

(A complete aside:  how syracuse.com collects so many wacky, uninformed and boorish commenters, I don't know, but the majority seem to be completely appalling on nearly every topic.  My sincerest apologies if you happen to be one of the few sane and articulate commenters.)

It seemed to be a fairly cool rainy summer, but that may just be because I was comparing it to some recent scorchers.  Every above-average temperature day, every non-snow streak, every winter that has an above-average temp overall, every drought makes me nervous.  I guess I had better get used to less snow and warmer averages, less biodiversity and more invasive species taking advantage of the milder climate.

I don't think I ever will get used to it.  No matter how much I pound my tiny fists and stomp my tiny feet, I'm powerless to stop it.  It makes me squirm and writhe in helpless frustration just to contemplate. 

Snow, where are you?  In my mind, snow is the only excuse for winter.  Why be cold, gray and have such short days if there's no payout with the fun white stuff?

"Where's our snow?"

I want to go up to Tug Hill and the Osceola Tug Hill ski center and buy myself some long-overdue new cross country skis.  I want an excuse to splurge on the snowshoes I've been drooling over (although realistically skis and snowshoes can't both be in the budget for this year).  I want to try out my new Nokian Hakkapeliitta snow tires (they're gnarly suckers).  I want to feel like a tough chick for fearlessly venturing out in blizzards and shoveling feet of snow out of my driveway before I can pull in.  I want to again watch my shrimpy dogs bound through snow that's over their heads, and laugh at the cat for dipping his paws delicately into the snow, shaking them off, and returning quickly to the house with a look of distaste on his face.  I want to make a snow fort.

Anybody know any snow dances??  Wanna teach them to me???