Baby it's Cold Outside

     Ah yes,it's winter once again. Temperatures are staying low, we've already had a snow storm to usher in the season, and although it's been a week since then we are still knee deep in snow. It got so bad that trains weren't able to run, the usually reliable bus service gave up and people were buried for several days in some areas. It may seem wicked of me to say this, but it sure made me glad I didn't have to get up and go to work any more when that storm hit. That was the second storm that I've experienced here, and this one seems to have been much worse than the first.

      Back then I used to think that snow was nice and fluffy and fun. Flakes would float gently down from the sky, land on your hair and eyelashes as you walk in a winter wonderland. It would coat everything like magic dust, turning the whole landscape into a marshmallow frosted world. Hah! Try standing outside in a blizzard and see if this cotton candy like image holds. Forget that it's so many degrees below zero. Forget that the fierce wind blowing all around makes it even more freezing. The snow itself has a coldness and ferocity all its own that will make you wonder what you ever found wonderful and fascinating about it in the first place. Snow during a blizzard is not fluffy and does not float down gently to earth. It pours down in blasts that can probably sand down smooth any area exposed to it long enough. I know, I've felt it. Right on the face too. It was an unpleasant surprise for me to discover that snow during a storm feels like an exfoliant scrub; an extreme exfoliant scrub.

      Thank goodness the storm lasted only a day and a night. Imagine if it had gone on for even just two days and nights! Yaiks! In some places people are still digging out and some roads are still a mess. But the bad also has a nice side. Where the snow lay undisturbed it did really look pretty. With all the snow that fell kids were able to go sledding. And all that cold made it perfect weather for hot chocolate/coffee/tea and snuggling. I love having a good excuse to snuggle, don't you?

© Margj Castillo, Between You and Me, 2010 - Present.