Winter

Snow! I like snow. Nearly a foot all told over the weekend makes me happy. We had several four foot icicles hanging off the pergola over our deck, which I broke off and stuck spike-strip style into the snow. Google says its 3 outside right now, and my dashboard widget says -1. I can never really tell once its this cold – I can never really feel it either. Anything below 20 is all the same to me, and I rarely zip up my jacket for anything other than wind. It isn’t cold enough for spit to bounce, so I don’t really care. I’m looking forward to that though.

I forgot how bright winter nights are. This weekend after the snow storms, I was caught off guard by how bright it was at four in the morning. The snow, reflecting up to the clouds, reflecting back down, and so forth. Even on a cloudless night, like tonight, it is brighter than I expect it to be. Winter nights also always manage to look better. I don’t know if they’re actually clearer or not, but winter nights always seem to do something special to stars. I can’t help but wonder if that’s just us regretting that we can’t look at them for as long as we would like to because of the weather. In the summer, we could stay out all night and comfortably stare at the stars. Winter nights are harder to appreciate, and we might just value them more for that. Or maybe it’s just the contrast between the sky and the snow – what do I know.