If it's zero degrees outside today and it's going to be twice as cold tomorrow, how cold is
it going to be?
My friend posted the following comment on Facebook:
“Whoever shook the snow globe,
thanks!”
No one wants to hurt her feelings, but I would guess that there are more
than a few people who do not think snow is all that wonderful.
My friend was raised here in the state of Utah. Maybe that’s what it takes to appreciate the white stuff. I, myself, only heard about snow for a
long time before I actually saw it.
In fact, I remember the day that I finally experienced snow.
We kids were outside playing kick the can one warm fall day in our
neighborhood in Phoenix, when my dad came home from working up in
Flagstaff. They had had an early
snowfall and the back of his truck was full of snow. He shoveled some extra in before he headed home and he
actually made it to our house before it melted so that we could have a snowball
fight in the front yard with our friends.
Of course, by then, the stuff was getting a little slushy and it hurt
like heck when someone chucked it at you.
I was surprised to discover that after a few seconds of trying to smash
a snowball together, our hands were aching from the cold.
Living in Phoenix, I didn’t have too many occasions to see the stuff
again until we decided to move to Pennsylvania. Pennsylvanians didn’t seem to be too crazy about snow either;
for good reason, we discovered.
Most city dwellers live on narrow streets that are normally just wide
enough for two cars to pass going opposite directions. Add one more car on each side of the
street for people who park in front of their own houses, along with the icy
streets that come with snowfall, and you have some serious auto insurance
claims. I once got stuck in my car
for 20 minutes because some schmoe double-parked and I couldn’t get by …but
that’s another story.
If you happen to live on that narrow little street, you might assume that
the parking spot out in front of the house is yours. You shovel the spot out and you try to mark it by putting
your summer lawn chairs in the hole when you need to run to the store for a
minute. You don’t want anyone to
get your parking spot. You might
even hang a sign with your name on the chairs. But the city frowns on such selfish behavior and all someone
needs to do is get out and move the chairs and you are busy shoveling out a new
place to park. I decided it was smarter to borrow a quart of milk than to go
out for it.
There are a myriad of other difficulties that people endure in the east
because of the snow, including the unpredictability of whether they will call a
snow day for school or not, (working mothers loved that), snow plows that made
surprise passes down your narrow street covering your car with even more snow
and the hilarious fun of delivering newspapers in the occasional blizzard.
OK. I guess I can admit that snow is not all bad. No one can deny the breathtaking beauty
of looking out the window at a fresh blanket of snow, when no one has walked
through it and tracked it in on the carpet yet.
And Utah doesn’t cancel school too often either. No sense wasting a
perfectly good school day just because the bus could slide off the road.
If you do get a good snow and a free day to use it, there are plenty of
fun activities that you can recall from your armchair while you recuperate from
the occasional injury you incurred from crashing into a rock or a tree while skiing
or tubing down the mountain.
Snow is also good for maintaining water levels…when it finally melts out
of the parking lots, where it takes up a good deal of space for 6 months of the
year.
But the best part of getting snow is cold weather apparel. Unfortunately, I can’t usually afford
the more stylish duds because warmer clothing is usually more costly. But no matter, because I could always
outfit the gang at the local thrift store to keep everyone from freezing to
death. Now that it’s just Bill and
I, we’ve solved the wardrobe problem by just staying home.
Ok. It is pretty.
I’ll stop there.
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