Snow is expected today, only around 2 inches, a mere dusting. Yesterday was balmy, in the 30’s, but the cold will be back. Tonight will get down to 19˚ and tomorrow will be even colder. The morning is dark, and the sky has that look of snow, a grayness different from any other. I’m just hoping it stays away long enough so Gracie and I can go to the dump and to Agway for cat and dog food.

Snow is sliding from my roof and landing on the deck with a huge crashing sound. The first time it happened Fern and Gracie jumped a bit. The second time it happened neither one of them reacted: both stayed asleep.

When I was young, I never got tired of snow. I’d sit by the picture window and watch it fall. My favorite time was at night. In the dark, I’d watch snow fall in the beam of the streetlight. Sometimes the snow fell sideways buoyed by the wind. The road in front of my house was thoroughly deserted when it snowed. Cars were parked off the street in the lot at the top of the hill. That was the only time the lot was used other than by us kids for roller skating. It was always quiet when it snowed as if the flakes smothered sound.

I particularly remember one storm with the snow whipping sideways. The flakes were blowing so furiously the storm seemed angry. It covered the mailbox, the sidewalks and the street in drifts. I stayed at the window a long time, so long I was freezing from the cold leaking through the window’s frame.

I miss the hiss of radiators. One was on the wall at the foot of my bed. At night I could hear the water gurgling as it traveled through the radiator. I could hear the steam. Sitting in front of one was the quickest way to get warm and the top of the radiator was the best place for drying mittens.

The sky is even more ominous. The snow is close. Gracie and I have to get going.