Okay, technically it’s not snowing – it was snowing. But I was so excited about it this morning that the only way to express it is in the present tense.
All week people have been making dire predictions about snow and ice and warning us that we’d better get to the grocery store and stock up on water and bread. I didn’t buy it. Every year there’s at least one big snow “scare,” and almost every year it turns out to be exaggerated or not even one snowflake appears.
So this morning, when D woke up and said, “Hey, it’s snowing!” I thought at first he was trying to trick me. But then I looked out my window and saw the snow falling thick and fast. I’m usually slow to rise in the morning, preferring to wallow around in the cozy warm bed and think about whatever bizarro dream I just had (this week I had a zombies-take-over-the-world dream and one in which John Travolta was my sugar daddy). But as soon as I saw the snow, I leaped out of bed and started pulling on socks and shoes, while squealing, “Let’s go play in it!”
That’s how I ended up prancing all over the neighborhood in pink striped pajama pants. Since snow is so rare, everyone else was out, too – either strolling or driving around checking it all out and snapping photos. I took photos of every square inch of our property, just in case I never see it covered with snow again.
By noon the snow had stopped, the temperature had risen to 38 degrees, and the snow on the ground was starting to melt. We went out for a second round and took photos all over the neighborhood, while letting Millie explore the snow, which she liked much better now that it was lying flat on the ground and not flying through the air.
The dire predictions are still happening – another wave of snow and ice is supposedly coming later – and we finally gave in to the panic somewhat and bought some additional groceries. It’s true we Alabamians are utterly unprepared for such events – we don’t have snow chains or even proper coats.
But I’m having fun. Today feels like those days back in elementary school when a similar inch and a half of snow on the ground would keep us home from school. We’d go out and play in the snow, get soaked to the skin in our sneakers and thin gloves, then come back into the warm, warm house and play all sorts of pretend. Or that night when I was in college that it snowed, and all the kids in the dorms poured out onto the quad to have snowball fights and build snowmen.
When snow is so rare, it has a certain magic, and I’m sad to see it go so quickly.
