too many words by laura lemay

snowy landscape

It’s been a really cold snowy march up here. All month its been snowing on and off — a little snow, then it melts, and then a little bit more. Yesterday it snowed all day, although the temperature was bouncing around a lot so most of the time it wasn’t sticking much. But during the worst of it there was a good layer on the ground and they had to close the freeway next to our house. (Those of you who actually live in snowy climates will be thinking: they CLOSED the FREEWAY?!? but snow is really unusual here and bad things happen when we get any snow at all.)

It was a big storm and most of it was supposed to be over yesterday afternoon. Which was why it was a big surprise to wake up this morning and find three inches of snow on the ground. Well, hey.

We get the perfect snow up here. There’s usually just enough to cover everything and make it beautiful, just enough for a good snowball fight or to make a snowman, just enough to say “well, sorry, I can’t come into work today, they’ve closed the freeway.” But then in less than a day its all gone again. No shovelling, no scraping ice off the car, no slogging through dirty ick or slipping on the ice and falling on your butt. Perfect snow.