Friday, November 21, 2008

Unexpected Snow

This morning Dan’s phone was ringing incessantly. From about 6:30am to 6:45am we received three phone calls from Piper’s elementary school.

“What is going on?” I groaned as the cell phone message tone started dinging. “Check the messages!” and I rolled back over to get at least 15 more minutes of sleep before my alarm went off.

“Two hour delay due to snow,” Dan startled me awake.

“What snow?” I rolled over towards the window and pulled back the curtain. The unusual brightness the comes from sunrise on a newly whitened world made me pull the covers back up around my ears.

“Snow” I breathed into my pillow.

There is something magical about waking up in a world changed by weather. Suddenly, the impossible seems possible, and the mundane is transformed into the fantastic. Snow, and especially ice, coating the trees, disguising the dirty, broken, and old, making things glittery, changing the smells and sounds, adding excitement and danger to the world.

It also makes me want to stay in bed.

By midmorning the snow was gone. The last remnants dissolving in the shadows, like a familiar dream forgotten.

1 comment:

englishdan said...

Piper spent much of those 2 hours out in the front yard, building the tiniest, dirtiest little "snowman" ever. (basically a ball of ice, with a smaller ball of ice on top.)

Ah, first snowfall of the year - beautiful and short-lived; magical and utterly unsatisfying. More snow please! (and keep your damn 6:30 a.m. robocalls to yourself.)