Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow

At 11:50 p.m. on Friday, April 6th, I saw snowflakes. I went out for my near-midnight walk to say a few words to Mom before I settled in for the night (an old habit I hope to never abandon) and felt something wet dotting my forehead every now and then; when I wandered into a streetlamp's glow, I could see the large, airy flakes drifting in the rapidly-chilling evening air. The scattering of windblown flakes continued for the duration of my walk, and there were still flakes dancing through the darkness at 12:05 a.m. this morning as I walked through the door.

We never had a measurable snowfall this year, and I only saw intermittent flakes once during the winter; this is the second visible snow of the year--and it's a freak spring snow, no less! The latest snow I can recall came on April 5th in the mid-1980s, probably 1983 or 1984; it took us all by surprise, because it hadn't been in the forecast when we went to bed that evening. This was a real snow, one that covered the ground and blew across the road in light drifts; I went to school that day, but many of the students used measurable snow as an excuse to stay home... and who can blame them, in this part of the country where any snow is a memorable occasion? This snow was nothing like that, but it is snow, and we'll take whatever we can get...