Unless the rain prevails and washes away the snow, I expect that sometime after dawn I will be awakened by the scraping of one of the town snowplows on the pavement. They aren't real snowplows, of course, since the snow here is too rarely deep enough to justify the expense of maintaining one. Instead, the town has blades which can be attached to the fronts of the road department's pickup trucks. On those occasions when the snowfall is too great for these to handle, bulldozers and skip loaders are hired from private construction companies. Something tells me those companies will be getting some business in the new year. The heaviest snowfalls here have usually come in February. Given that I have never known it to be this cold in December, I shiver to think what this coming February might bring.We might be buried under a blizzard of Montanan proportions.
For the moment, the snow is but a decorative blanket, and the cold insufficient to keep it falling. A while ago, the cats even ventured out to inspect it, and one remained out for nearly an hour. They, of course, much prefer snow to rain, as it leaves them dry -- until they come indoors and any flakes caught in their fur begin to melt. It's fun to see the looks they get on their faces when they realize they are getting damp and they have no idea how it is happening. Kitties and snow -- an unbeatable combination for cheap winter fun.
It's possible that the snow may grow deeper after sunrise, of course, if the clouds thicken and it grows colder. That's not an uncommon sequence of events here. I hope that it doesn't interfere with the shopping that needs to be done. I will soon be needing more cat food, and I am entirely out of chocolate chips! How did that happen? I don't know, but it needs to be rectified as soon as possible!
I'd like to write about the trip I made to San Francisco this time of year when I was 19, but I'm afraid to get started on yet another entry which promises to be very long when I've already got several such unfinished, lurking somewhere on Sluggo's hard drive. But I've been intending to tackle this particular tale for the last two Decembers, and my failure to have done so nags me. I'm sorely in need of the ambition I had when I was younger and had little to say. Alas that experience and energy work at cross purposes in human life! But that's enough bemoaning for a morning so near the year's end. If I don't finish what I've started this year, there's always another (he said with death-defying bravado.) Let's have an early drink to the new year. Cheers!
