Snow days

I woke up expecting quite the Christmas 'gift,' but was strangely disappointed to find the long prophesied Blizzard was a bust, somewhat reminiscent of those ancient days wherein we anxiously watched the words scrolling across the bottom of the local news channel (one of our 3 channels!) and strained our ears to catch the first hint from the radio that school was in fact canceled, and when it wasn't I felt just the same.  But it was a weird day, it was quiet, as if all creation were holding its breath, waiting for something.  Everything was white with hoar frost and blurry with fog, there was no traffic, no hustle and bustle, coming or going; silence.  An eerie, expectant silence.  The hours ticked by, but nothing changed.  We made a merry meal within, but without, the world brooded, pensive and mysterious.  Then it began to snow.

Darkness crept in at an obscenely early hour, as it always does this time of year, and the wind with it. I no longer had to imagine how the pioneers and farmers of yore managed to get lost walking from the barn to the house, only to wander lost forever in the dark and cold, snow and wind, until death stayed their futile steps.  The wind howled, the snow was hurled about in its fury, and it seemed impenetrable night had descended upon us, isolating us from all other men, as if we were alone upon the whole face of the world.  Morning came, but the storm raged on for a few more hours, but now the digging out must begin.  Finally, days later, life can resume its normal rhythms.

It was late, but it came, and I must say, I was not disappointed in the least.  If you are going to have all the trouble, danger, and annoyance of winter weather, you might as well have something spectacular and grand, something to talk over for the balance of the current winter and to bore your kids and grandkids with in all the winters to come.  'You think this was bad, you should have seen the Christmas Blizzard of '16...'