Snow Spit and Moon Light

The weather has been erratic here lately, but that's part of the charm of winter in Appalachia.

It seems as if it's spent the week spitting snow. Tuesday I watched from the windows of my classroom as the snow came and went in short bursts and flurries. Because one of our teachers had to spend two days this week at a county activity, I had the pleasure on Tuesday and Wednesday of teaching math to the second and third graders. They watched the snow through the morning out our windows and acted as if they thought Old Man Winter was teasing them. None of it ever stuck there at the school...

So I was surprised on my way home when snow started to appear on the ground as I approached the state line. I arrived home to find between two and three inches of white powder in my yard.

Tuesday night was beautiful. I went outside at about 11pm and stood in the snow covered yard. The moon was full and huge in the sky. The wind was almost completely still. And the light made the yard look like a giant black light was shining on the snow. It was a beautiful scene. I stood there for about ten minutes with a glass of Burgundy in my hand, watching Canis Major help Orion chance Taurus across the night sky. And I thought about the poem by Frost, Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening...

It warmed up a little on Wednesday and some rain washed all the snow away. I'd hoped to see the lunar eclipse, but I saw clouds instead. And it seemed like the rain washed the snow away only to make room for new snow - about an inch by Thursday morning.

I've talked previously about my drive to work. On Monday the slick roads contributed to an accident that blocked my path to work for about 45 minutes. A head on collision near Skygusty, WV. One of the vehicles was almost unrecognizable and both drivers had to be cut from their vehicles.

We are supposed to get freezing rain over night. Perhaps we'll get a phone call in the morning telling us not to come.