Everyone loves to talk about the weather. Sometimes, I can’t help myself either. Indulge me.
It’s December 29 and this has been the most mild of Decembers I can remember in the middle of the country. We had some snow at the beginning of the month and people, as they always do, lost their minds about it. Somehow that first big snowfall of the year doesn’t seem to jog the memory of the average citizen here to slow down and increase their stopping distance by two or three fold. Instead they get panicky and feel odd urges to get home as quickly as possible because they have 4-wheel drive and their Escalade does awesome in the snow, except for when they need to make their hunk of metal stop.
That snow didn’t last long as the temperatures crept back into October levels leaving copious amounts of sand and gravel and rock salt all over the streets. I pity the children who have been out on their bikes this week and have found their ability to stop impaired by all the silt. I remember that time I flipped over my handlebars trying to stop in the sand. It was less than good.
Thankfully, my children have remained safely on the right side of their handlebars. They’ve decorated our driveway with chalk. They’ve played the bean bag game. There was a trip to a park and football in the backyard. It isn’t quite sledding or shoveling or snow angel creating and there haven’t been any snowmen yet, but I think it has been a fantastic trade.
The tiny drops of rain that are hitting the window now are welcome to fall as snowflakes, but I won’t complain about the rain either.
