Incoherent Scribblings

Snow Cactus
Originally uploaded by blondelibrarian.

I have heard tell that out here in West Texas there are few things that get folks as excited as talking about the weather. Since we live in the desert I find this rather amusing because typically the weather here isn’t all that exciting. With the exception of a couple of days in early October where the thunder rumbled and there was a sudden, but brief downpour, in the two months that I have lived here the weather has been anything but thrilling: It has either been hot and dry or windy and dry.

Therefore you can imagine everyone’s excitement when the weather-person began predicting a cold front that might bring the possibility of snow to West Texas Town early last week. As the day of reckoning grew closer the speculation increased: Would it freeze? Should the plants be brought in? Would there be ice or snow on one of the busiest travel days of the year? And most importantly… Could we finally turn off our air conditioners?

On Wednesday while I was out and about I noticed a significant drop in temperature and decided it was time to pull my fall jacket out of storage. I unplugged my air conditioner and tried to figure out how (and if) the heaters in my apartment worked. That night the temperature dropped below freezing and the next day the talk of snow around town was even greater than before.

Thanksgiving Day and Black Friday passed without so much as a snowflake drifting to the ground, but when I went out on Saturday morning to do my errands I was greeted with cold, thick raindrops. I knew the temperature must be hovering around freezing and when I went to the grocery store I could tell from the thin supply of milk and bread that everyone was hunkering down as if a blizzard was coming.

A few hours later I heard the first brakes skid in the parking lot below and I decided that barring the Apocalypse I would not be leaving my apartment anytime soon as inexperienced snow-drivers made everything from driving my car to walking down the street dangerous. I settled down with some hot chocolate and my stitching and every so often I peeked out the window to see the magic of desert snow.

The next morning the clear blue sky was broken up by a few wisps of cloud and it was cold enough that the snow was still on the ground, but it was obvious that the “storm” had passed.

And by this afternoon the temperature had rebounded and the snow had all but disappeared.