I'll grow old - but I won't grow up.

Tuesday, November 15, 2005

Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Uh-Oh.

Sioux City got its first dusting of snow for the season this morning – and it certainly won’t be its last. It’s a combo of wet snow/rain that makes for perfect slushballs, and that’s about it.

But hey – dealing with a little sloppy snow sure beats the hell out of driving in freezing rain. There are few driving experiences out there that suck more than trying to drive (and keep your car out of the ditch) in the bitch that is freezing rain -- or her bastard brother, freezing drizzle. Yet another reason why I can’t wait to move out of this godforsaken state.

So it’s snowing again. Pretty to look at for about 5 minutes, and then the novelty wears off. It wasn’t that way when I was a kid, mainly because it rarely snowed in Seattle when I was growing up. An inch or two of wet snow, sticking to the grass, and that was about it. Of course, that was enough to send all the crazed Seattleites into a panic – driving like loons, stocking up on 3 months of rations, closing schools at the mere rumor of a snowflake. It’s amazing – those people drive in rain all year long without so much of a blink of an eye, but when it snows they go berserk. And yet as I kid I couldn't wait for it to snow.

There were a few times I can remember when the snow in Seattle was actually sled-worthy. 6, 8 inches of snow packed on the streets was a pretty good time, as long as you remembered to jump of the sled before you hit the fire hydrant at the bottom of the street. (66th Ave is a mighty steep hill.) Because it never gets too terribly cold there, you could stay outside and sled as long as you didn’t mind having to haul it all the way back up the hill, and as long as you could get away with pretending that you didn't hear your Mom calling you to come inside before you freeze to death.

Alas, such winter wonderland fun doesn’t exist much here in the Midwest, because even though we get considerably much more snow than Seattle, it tends to be 10 below zero at the time, which really doesn’t make for fun sledding. Funny how frostbite puts a damper on the good times, doesn't it? That, and the fact that I’m now 40 and my interaction with snowflakes usually means I’m either scraping or shoveling the shit, perhaps the shimmer is permanently off that diamond.

But still, I do like to watch it snow a little bit, and when we move to Florida I’ll probably miss seeing a little bit of fresh snow around Christmas time......but the fact that I’ll be floating in a swimming pool enjoying a mai-tai and 80 degree weather at the time will probably make up for it.

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