“Snow falling soundlessly in the middle of the night will always fill my heart with sweet clarity”
Okay, I will not bore you with today’s weather report. Just think of the last several days. To add to the misery, it’s damp and chilly, and I just put my second load in the washing machine. Even I couldn’t take another day walking around the laundry bag by the cellar door.
When I was a kid, I didn’t really care much about the weather except when it snowed. The first one of us to notice falling flakes would yell “Snow!” and the rest of us would run and jostle each other for the center spot at the picture window, the best vantage point for snow watching. I can still remember the excitement a snow storm would bring and how at night the snow flakes glittered when they fell below the street light. We’d watch then keep going back to the window to keep track of the amount of snow as those flakes carried all our hopes of mounting inches and no school.
When I got older, snow was far less welcomed. It meant shoveling the walk and getting the car free of the mounds of snow left in front of it by the plow. I begrudged snow days as each one meant going deeper into June before school was out for the summer. Snow was an inconvenience.
Snow and I are on far better terms now that I’m retired. There is no hurry getting the car loose as I have nowhere to go. Let the school extend forever. It doesn’t affect me at all. Skip, my factotum, is also my plow guy. He comes and shovels the walk, gets my car loose and shovels the back steps for Gracie so she can get into the yard. Sometimes he doesn’t come until late as he also does the library and several other houses. I don’t care just as long as he comes.
Even in my anti-snow period, I loved watching the snow fall, still do. I always turn on my back light and leave the inside door open so I can stand there and watch the flakes as they glimmer and shine in the light. I figure there aren’t many things as beautiful as a snow flake.
Explore posts in the same categories: MusingsTags: plowing, shoveling, Snow, snow day, snow flakes, Snowflake, Winter storm
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November 24, 2012 at 12:28 pm
This morning we almost got down to freezing. However, the sun is shinning and we are warming up nicely for a high of 60 degrees.
Like you I loved snow as a kid. I loved everything about it including the days off from school. I never thought much about makeup days in June because summer was a lifetime away in kid time. Now I dread any forecast that includes freezing precipitation. Ice storms create the most hazardous driving conditions only helping the bottom line of body shops who will be busy for weeks fixing up the damage. Snow just shuts down everything here since we are not prepared for the frozen flakes. There are no snow plows in the entire Dallas Ft. Worth metroplex. During the great snowstorm of Super Bowl week a couple of years ago the city imported plows from Amarillo to make sure the roads were clear to get the players and the owners of the teams to the Super Bowl. They couldn’t care about everyone else. That was the year that the NFL sold tickets for seats that didn’t exist. Luckily for those fans, Cowboy Stadium has the largest HD TVs ever made hanging over the field so the folks without seats can enjoy the game on TV. It must be fun paying $12 for parking and $35 for the privilege to stand in the end zone terrace along with hundreds of others who are can’t afford to pay $100 per seat. I now enjoy both the super bowl and snow storms sitting on my sofa watching on my big screen TV.
November 24, 2012 at 2:48 pm
Bob,
It is 48˚ here and the sun did finally come pout but didn’t make the day any warmer.
I never thought about June when I was a kid, but when I was a teacher I did.
I know places like Washington, DC close down with even a couple of inches of snow as they do not have plows either. I didn’t know the Super Bowl story. That must have been cold and awful standing there.
November 24, 2012 at 2:54 pm
The new Cowboy Stadium has a retractable roof and not only was it closed for the Super Bowl but huge chunks of ice fell off of the roof and into the parking lot the day before the game.
November 24, 2012 at 12:33 pm
I do like to see snow falling and I love photographs with lots of snow, I just can’t stand it on the ground 🙂 It’s just a lot of problems and I think I’ve always thought like that. Well it was fun with snow on the slopes of course 🙂
I decided to put up the light-chains today and I can honestly say it looks just as bad as last year 🙂 🙂 🙂 I haven’t decided what it looks like yet, perhaps a very crocked spruce, even though the lighst are placed in my crab apple tree 🙂 🙂 🙂
Have a great day!
Christer.
November 24, 2012 at 2:50 pm
Christer,
I’m that way now-pretty to look at but a real pain to deal with, to shovel and clear.
I don’t think it matters as long as they’re lit! I bet at night it is beautiful!!
Enjoy the evening!
November 25, 2012 at 12:57 am
I have to say no on that 🙂 🙂 🙂 But at least there are some lights now 🙂 🙂 🙂
November 24, 2012 at 1:03 pm
Hi Kat,
I would like snow more if it didn’t fall on anything that I had to shovel or walk on or drive over. 🙂
It should only fall on unpaved surfaces.
Snow falling on a windless night makes the most calming of sounds; a soft “sssshhh”.
And it’s sunny here again today. Sorry. I hear that blue skies are heading your way on a brisk west wind. The wind is very brisk here so perhaps they are right. Hope so. Vitamin D just isn’t as satisfying as blue skies and sunshine.
Enjoy the day.
November 24, 2012 at 2:52 pm
Hi Caryn,
Maybe all the walkways, roads and sidewalks of the future will be heated then no one will have to plow and shovel. I love Skip because I hate to shovel with my bad back. I’d be a corkscrew for months.
It’s so true about the sound of snow. The air also smells like snow just before it starts and the light has an eerie look.
WE got sun this afternoon while I was out exploring with Gracie. Still cold though.
November 24, 2012 at 4:24 pm
Right, point the car northwards and lets get out of Columbus. Maggie is onboard but did not come with me the see OSU and The WalMart Wolverines. good game but friggin cold especially in the concourse.
November 24, 2012 at 8:04 pm
My Dear Hedley,
I was wondering where you’ve been. I got a bit worried.
Gracie and I did errands today, including the dump as it would have been crazy yesterday after being closed. She was quite happy with her head out the window.
I don’t want to hear friggin cold as it may be on the way here!
November 24, 2012 at 7:04 pm
I HATE snow…I have adventures on any surface I walk on, so to throw snow and ice into the mix is a possible recipe for disaster – – or at least gives me a good shot at landing on my keister. When I bought my house I looked into heating the driveway to keep it clear. It proved to be too cost-prohibitive, but I sure liked the idea. Funny how things change as we get older…the 10 year old in me would be rooting for a snow day too. The schools here are freaking out because they are scrambling to make up days after Sandy but are also nervous over the long term winter forecast for (possibly) a lot of snow…
November 24, 2012 at 8:16 pm
Coleen,
Like you, I have adventures. On snow I tend to be careful; on ice, I fall!
I used to park at the top of the driveway which made for shoveling the least amount of snow. Now, I write a check!
I heard the same forecast of a lot of snow this waiter. Last year was a bust. I can only hope for a repeat!
November 24, 2012 at 9:48 pm
There otta be a law, (remember that Sunday comic?) that says snow is not allowed to fall anywhere there are parked cars, roadways, or sidewalks.To me that would be the “Perfect Storm”.
Here, sand is substituted for snow, not in the same quantity, of course, but it does have some of the same draw backs. Additionally, it has lots of its own. Like never going away, being a eye, nose and throat irritant and abrasiveness that scrapes at everything.
This past week it has been raining. Three days of it, four actually as it did rain a bit last night again. I told W yesterday that we should head out to the desert to see what changes come about when it rain. He, the veteran here, came back with “Yes, its really nice out there, now the sand doesn’t fall off so easily.” Nice thought.
Strangely, at least I think so, camping season is in full swing now with the cooler weather, We’ve driven by tent cities where they have hundreds for rent, all set up with whatever you want, sofas, kitchens, king sized beds, whatever! And some of the tents are as large as a house, just like in the movies. It seems the folks here can’t wait to get out and rough it, mostly with electric heaters.
Izzy and I have been chatting about the idea of spending a night or two out there also. There are a variety of sand machines to rent and I guess there are lots of scheduled events through out the season (which lasts until April or maybe May when they law says the tents have to be taken down. Its getting warmer then and I suppose they want the desert to be as natural as possible for visitors. There certainly seems to be enough of it. W would probably go to use the machines, but most likely not overnight.
He maybe the smart one.
Carl
November 24, 2012 at 10:37 pm
Carl,
I would love to camp in a sumptuous tent on a chilly desert night. It sounds like a great experience you don’t often get a chance to have. Go ahead-have fun for a couple of nights.
You have had more rain than I. It has been cloudy every day but no rain. The cold is on its way, and the 40’s we’ve been having will be the 30’s at night.
I was in the Sahara in Niger and even went camel riding. The city of Niamey had sand all over as the desert bordered it. It was an amazing place, almost straight out of my imagination. Camels were ridden along the sides of the road and there were Toarags dressed all in black.
November 27, 2012 at 2:00 am
Just outside the house, the air conditioner compressor whirs, keeping it a comfy 76 for sleeping. I can hear the thunder just north, where an approaching cold front may make it seasonally more rational for temperatures the next few days on the TX coastal plain.
You said:
=>I figure there aren’t many things as beautiful as a snow flake.<=
which I will complement with stepping outside with the sun at your back, just after it rises, seeing the drops of dew glistening on spider webs and grass leaves, just as though it were all the diamonds in the world in your yard.
Rick
November 27, 2012 at 11:06 am
Rick,
I hear the furnace keeping the house toasty at 67˚ or 68˚.
I will totally agree that your morning scene is wonderfully beautiful.
The morning in Ghana this time of year were beautiful in a whole different way. It was chilly at 75˚, and the air almost had the feel of late October about it. Women carrying baskets hurried to market on the sandy path behind my house. The students were talking in a variety of languages as they walked and carried buckets to the shower. I’d sit on my front porch taking it all in making a memory.