This winter has been a dud so far. I
really don't like winter rain. In my opinion, there is no worse weather. Nothing makes me colder than a wet cold. It could be -10 F and clear or snowing and I'd be perfectly comfortable. But if it is 35 F and even slightly damp, I can't get warm. Chilled to.the.bone. Snow, on the other hand, is beautiful. It insulates. It creates a quiet blanket over everything. You are in a fairytale land of magic crystals that twinkle and sparkle. Even when it snows in my face on a run, it is so much more refreshing, calming, and enjoyable than cold rain.
Normally, our area starts getting snow in October - even if it doesn't stay around at first. Most years we have solid white by mid-November at the latest - the variety that stays until April. This year, uh, uh. We had a few light flurries in November, but I mean real flurries. Just enough to tease. I kept looking twice to see "was that really snow or was it my imagination?" Nothing stuck. Mostly it was all wet rain. And a lot of it. We have had some really cold days and nights, but never in combination with precipitation. Last week we had one day with an inch of snow that was gone by the time I left work in the evening. :(
I went for my run late last night. I am slow, but I go pretty far. When I left the house there was a cloudy, snow sky. Given the weather this year, I wasn't worried and figured I'd be back before anything exciting happened. Flurries started early in the run, and a huge, rogue snowflake smacked me in the eye! An hour or so into the run the flakes were coming steady. A half hour later they were flying in my face. I know it really wasn't snowing that hard, but it looked and felt like a blizzard! I couldn't keep myself from smiling all through the next several miles! The snow was still on the ground this morning and is still there tonight! I feel like a giddy child. :)
I'm almost afraid to hope, but I think we had a miracle last night! Snow is a miracle, the beauty of the crystals, the insulating value of something so cold to keep other things warm. The variety. I've experience snow so wet it is almost slush falling from the sky and snow so dry it won't pack into a snowball no matter how hard you try. Flakes as tiny as pin points and as large as silver dollars. And everything in between. I really hope this is the stuff that stays through Christmas, Lent, and up to Easter. But I do have to say, by March I'm done with the white stuff. :)
Time to get the sleds out! Wahoo!!!