Tuesday Slice: A blanket of white

 

The meteorologists were cautiously talking about snow a week ago, hinting at the chance of seeing the white stuff here in the Austin area, but leaning more towards accumulation in the Hill Country with a cold, wet mix of rain and snow closer to the city.

Two days out, they said it was looking more promising.  Maybe an inch or two, if we were lucky.

One day out, and one meteorologist was going big with a chance of eight inches.

I woke up before the alarm on Sunday to a clap of thunder for the second time this season.  Thunder always surprises me in winter; I associate that sound with the hot, steamy days of summer.  But there was no mistaking the boom, and the following deluge of rain.  Ah, well, wintry mix it is, I guessed.

Then it happened.  Halfway through "CBS Sunday Morning", I noticed the sound of rain had stopped.  I turned to the window to see big, fat white flakes falling outside.  Melting as soon as they hit the drenched ground.  Still skeptical, I turned back toward the television.

The snow kept falling...and falling.  Soon it WAS sticking.  When it stopped at five pm, we had a beautiful four inches of the white stuff blanketing our backyard.  For a few hours there was no pandemic, no politics...just the silent snow falling, the hush it brought to the landscape, the sight of children building snowmen in the park.

Our snow day was fleeting, however.  By four in the afternoon on Monday, it was almost gone, save for the snowmelt now filling the drainage creekbed.  Ah, well...it was beautiful, if just for the day.