#1 - Change of Seasons - Snow!

  

#1 – Change of Season’s – Snow

   These are in no particular order. It is just that we are surrounded by snow this winter so it is the first thing that comes to mind. Personally, I love snow. I guess it’s because I spent so many years living in Fl where the monotony and heat gets to you after awhile. I don’t often admit to being from Fl here in Asheville – it does not make you a popular person. Locals call people from Florida “Flor-idiots.”  After 17 years of living here I now find myself shouting that exact same phrase at folks with Fl license plates as they are driving down the middle of the road admiring our beautiful scenery at 5 miles an hour. How soon we forget….

   But back to the snow… The great thing about living here is that we will get snow and it stays around for a few days and then it is gone. This is unlike other parts of the country where the snow lingers on and on for months on end and gets dirty and disgusting. Ours does not last long enough for it to get black from cars driving on it or yellow from, well; you know what it would get yellow from! It really is the best of both worlds – we get it but don’t get sick of it. Winters are quite moderate and you are generally able to get out and enjoy them.

   This year we have had several good snow storms bringing 10 plus inches of snow and it has been wonderful! Locals have a tendency to think I am mentally ill as excited as I get over the white stuff. The main reason is that due to our steep mountain roads and lack of snow plows people just give up and stay home when we get more than a few inches. There really is nowhere to go anyway as the city has a tendency to shut down. We won’t even discuss the schools who have been known to shut down at the mere mention of the “S” word when not even a flake has been seen flying around.

   We could discuss why we seem to be getting more snow than we have in years past and why there is more of everything whether it is rain, heat, severe weather events like mud slides and tornados and melting ice caps. But that would necessitate a political discussion involving whether or not there really is such a thing as global warming and since this is not a political blog we will just stick to the main subject, which is snow!

   I look at it as an extended mini vacation. It is great to see folks cross country skiing thru our downtown, snow shoeing on the Blue Ridge Parkway, sledding on city streets and frolicking with their 2 and 4 legged children. There is a quiet that comes over the area and the views are just spectacular with the leaves missing from the trees and a coating of white on everything in sight. It is a refreshing and magical time here.

“The first fall of snow is not only an event, it is a magical event.  You go to bed in one kind of a world and wake up in another quite different, and if this is not enchantment then where is it to be found?”  ~J.B. Priestley