And the weather is...

Snow! We've got MORE snow... I know I shouldn't complain. Snow is winter's only redeeming quality. I hate the cold. I hate the gray. I hate the dark. I LOVE the snow -even if everyone else is well beyond tired of it.

Did you ever notice how winter, and all of it's bleakness just sneaks up on us. Let's start from August, shall we?

August is still hot and wonderful. The days are slowly getting shorter, but sunblock still abounds.
September comes, and school starts. The days are a bit shorter, and we fall back in to familiar routines. Shorts are traded in for light jackets, and everywhere you look are fantastic colors of red, yellow orange, brown and maroon. September into October are such a sight to be seen!
October comes, and brings with it more colors, fun costumes and decorations, and a few cold snaps. The days are even shorter still, but that just means that all of the fun of Halloween is even closer.
There's a business to November that even the kidlets feel. There's a charge to the air. Everyone is busy planning, baking, shopping, making. A house here and a house there will start to put up Christmas lights, and the excitement builds.
December brings with it cold, Arctic blasts and days with shortened light. BUT it also brings twinkling of Christmas lights on almost every street. It brings rosy cheeks and excited faces. It has rushing here and rushing there. And even though the daylight is getting sparse, it doesn't matter because of all of the wonderful, beautiful, exciting Christmas lights!
In January, Christmas is done and over, and New Year's is over. It's just cold. And dark. And dreary. And cold.
We're in the throws of winter, and no one noticed it creeping up. Everything else kept it's arrival hidden until it was too late. (Not that it could be stopped.) The colors are gone. The lights are gone. The SUN is gone. It's just cold. And dark. And dreary. And cold.
Then something magical happens. It snows. The snow coats the world in an amazing blanket of clean, shimmering white, and when the light hits it, it casts millions of glittering rainbows everywhere. Everything is bright, and fresh, and new again.
And then the kids romp through the snow. And the plow trucks come through. And the salt trucks come through and dump their precious, ice melting commodity on the roads and the walks, and anything within 8 feet of the edge of their trucks. And the cars splash the slush up on what's left of the clean, white, rainbow-casting snow. And the world turns brown, and gray and dirty and cold.
And when the snow finally does melt, everything is still covered in salt, so everything is gray. It's the same color gray as the winter sky. The dirty streets blend in with the cold, dark sky. The salty cars blend in with the dirty, salty streets. Everything looks the same, and it's all blah.
And then there's that little bit of magic again. It snows again, and the world is fresh and new again.