Snow

Snow… 

New, fresh, fluffy, light, powdered, deep.  Transitioning to cement we slog through.  Gliding over the just groomed trails …. ridges, turning to ruts, turning to moguls.   To ice, a sheet of ice, sometimes black.  

Fingers wrapped around a steering wheel hoping not to slide.    Tiptoeing through slick parking lots.  Wearing five pounds of snow boots, gloves, hats, and turtle fur gators.  Layers and layers.  Jackets with zippers and hoods.  Water resistant pants that are noisy when I walk..  

Wet, cold, hypothermic, sweating ….  it all depends.   Fireplaces and steaming bathes.  Hot cocoa, electric blankets, and a long movie.  

From quiet to loud, blanketing trees.   A storm, a blizzard, an avalanche, whirling snow in a bleak whiteness followed by sunny days that seem nothing short of amazing.  

Snowballs and snowmen.   Kids on sleds, snowmobiles, fat bikes, and skis that are skinny, edgy, wide….

Slush, the 7-Eleven slurpee kind, trying to melt …. molding into a river that either freezes and become a mess or thaws and transition to muddy puddles.  

The thaw, the freeze … the rain that begins to change into snow and then flakes.  Big snow flakes…. 

I'm walking through the park, I tilt my head back and taste a big snow flake.  The Florida girl in me is always amused.  Better than the 31 flavors at Baskin Robbins that I debated as a kid… better than comparing Rocky Road to Coffee Swirl to French Vanilla.  

The snow …..oh how I love the snow.