Monday, January 14, 2008

Snow Angels

It was almost fifty degrees Fahrenheit on Saturday and this morning, snow is steadily falling and the temperatures continue to drop. Thought for a minute when I saw the snow I was in Baghdad, which received its first snowfall in close to a century earlier in the week (suspect some politicians around the globe were a little nervous about that being a harbinger for the end of the Global War on Terror, GWOT, long-rumoured to happen only 'when hell freezes over', suddenly concerned they need to buy skates and head out on the ice.)

I like living where we have all four seasons, except when we sometimes have them all on the same day. And I'm such a horrible person that despite this being New England in January and despite the lovely weather we had so undeservedly (at least I didn't deserve it. Did you?), I'm still whining about the snow, slush and sleet we are having today. And I hate trying to build a slushman (the hat keeps falling off) and sleet angels are no good, either.

I like the way the snow, eventually, covers everything, transforming the landscape into something previously glimpsed though not always seen. There's an expression, 'It rains on the just and the unjust alike ' so I suppose, meterorologically, that's true for snow as well but I think snow adds an element of optimism and mystery to what it covers without concealing what it is.
We still know, under that snowdrift, is a car, but for just a moment we can pretend it's a Maybach and not a Mitsubishi.
-bill kenny

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