Snow day!

Snow is beautiful, especially when it happens only once every few years and then politely melts away the next day.

Today was a snow day here in Suburbingham and perhaps an inch of the white stuff has dusted the Bayberry woods.

Even though the snow didn't stick to the roads, schools and offices closed while people made panic runs to the stores for bread and milk. Events I was supposed to attend tonight and tomorrow morning have been cancelled.

We're such wimps here in the deep south. We're incapable of dealing with even the rumor of frozen precipitation. Earlier this winter every school and university in the area closed as we braced for a snowfall that never came. We repeated the drill today, and the closings were every bit as unnecessary. At least we got a little snow this time, but it hasn't been a barrier to movement.

I love how falling snow makes the world quieter, more peaceful--how the white brightens up the world. I'm in my office with a cup of hot tea looking out at a pristine world. It's nice.

The snow this winter has long since lost its charm for people in other places, but it's a novelty here and something to be welcomed. My friends and family in places like Maryland, Virginia, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin are sick to death of the snow this year. I'm only sorry we didn't get more of it here.

As much as I'm enjoying my snow day, I am over this particular winter. I'll bet you are too. This one has seemed especially harsh and unusually long. Teri is in New Orleans tonight and will be wearing my thermal undies at the parades tonight. That's not all she'll be wearing, don't get the wrong idea--she's not that kind of Mardi Gras reveler. I remember some Mardi Gras parades when I've had to bundle up, but for every one of those, there were five I went to in short-sleeves.

Scram, the feline Prince of Bayberry, is also weary of winter, and today's snow hasn't served to improve his mood. He has been yelling at me all afternoon, demanding that I change the conditions outside. The picture on the right shows my offended cat telling me to fix the problem now. After I took the shot, Scram took a couple of tentative steps into the snow and then ran back inside to sulk.

There's something ironic about how the Olympic organizers are having to truck snow to Vancouver this week while we have it on the ground in Alabama.

Strange world.

And beautiful.