We love weather you can see. It's one of the reasons we moved here.Today, we woke up to about 14 inches of visible weather on the ground and in the trees, and, well... We knew there'd be something to show for the cold front that passed through these parts the last couple of days, but I, for one, certainly didn't expect this much snow so early in the season.
Yesterday morning, we saw the first falling snow of the season in the form of those little styrofoam beads that stuff bean bags. I believed it to be all we would get from this first storm of several that were forecast for this week. A half inch, if that. Then, upon walking out of the building around four pm after performing our last of three Christmas concerts, actual flakes were coming down. Exactly like last year...
Last year, as we were singing the last concert of the series (a week later than this year's), serious snow began to fall. It was a perfect backdrop for the music swimming in my head as I drove home, sad that it was over, but glad to have been a part of something so beautiful. On one of many twisty parts of a country road near home, I was enjoying it all a little too much and was going about 5 mph too fast to take one particular curve and hit--a well-placed guard rail (the only one along the entire length of the road) which bounced me right back onto the road and on my way. Our little Sube (as well as my pride) still bears the evidence.
This year under nearly identical circumstances, I chugged on home, feeling the same sad/glad way as before, but traveling a little bit slower (giving a little glance in the direction of that guardrail as I passed by--ha!) and arriving in tact.
By morning, we had these amazing scenes! I walked my usual 3/4 mile to the main road to pick up the paper, but the tubes were empty. Still, a wonderful walk, right?! One casualty of this storm is that, since the snow levels were so low (Sacramento!), my rehearsal tonight and performance tomorrow night of the Messiah with the Auburn Symphony (which is 1000-1500 lower than we are here) was, sadly, canceled. Several of us from the chorale up here sang with them last year and were planning the same this year, as well. But there's no power at the concert facility and the roads from here to there are still dangerous.
Beyond that, though, a great thing about this storm is that, and this is very unusual, we have maintained internet, satellite and power (light, heat and water) uninterrupted. Sweet!
So, I'm not sure what's coming next (and I like it that way).
The photos are: our house, the front patio, the mailboxes and newspaper tubes, a view from the back deck and part of the driveway.
