Snow

So, we got snow here today in North Carolina which, frankly is not nearly as uncommon as we seem to make it out to be.  Granted, we don’t get snow for weeks on end like we did back in Chicago or anything near what we got in Wisconsin. But it is uncommon enough that the entire area goes completely nuts.  Although we are looking at less than 6 inches, it still requires the entirety of the local news cast dedicated to coverage.  Live on the scene reporters (including one reporting from the van driving around to report that there were not many people out.)  It is all quite comical.  Now granted there have been some sneaky storms down here that have laid down a layer of ice that took a week to recover from but, that was years ago.

One of the common and hilarious actions people take is that there is a full-on run at the grocery store.  You must get bread, milk and, new this year to the shopping list apparently, bananas.  The stores will be completely cleaned out of all of it.  We had to stop to pick up a couple things that didn’t make the weekly order and you would have sworn it was the day before Thanksgiving with the added feature of everyone buying bananas (which the store had been cleaned out of and which happened to be on our shopping list.)  Complete madness really.

The kids are, of course, very excited as they get every time we get some snow.  I do think that it is uncommon enough that they do get a genuine thrill out of it.  One year I would love to take them up to Superior so they can see what real snow is all about.  One year while I was at school up there we got a storm on Halloween that dropped 36 inched in 12 hours and followed it up with 40 mph winds.  We had drifts that covered entire cars to the point that you couldn’t even tell they were there (my Rabbit included.)  That was a fun storm as a group of us got snowed in at someone’s apartment.  We had a great time for a good 2 or 3 days before we could make our ways back to campus. 

I remember the snow in St. Charles growing up when we had gotten so much that it was piled over our heads on either side of the driveway.  I don’t believe we had school for better part of two weeks as the storms just kept coming through in waves, each one a day or so after the previous.  That was the best snow to play in as well as it was heavy, wet snow that creative kids to mold into just about anything.  Ah the wonder of it all… Now, the wonder has worn off some (or else we may not have moved south in the first place) but it is still to be enjoyed when it comes to visit every now and then.

I walked outside and everything has the blueish white glow to it and the snow is untouched by anything.  The view along with the wind (and perhaps the memories) takes your breath away.