Kate Schaefer

We've had periods of not snowing, but every time that happens, Hal goes and clears off our walk, and then it snows again. What impresses me about the horizontal surfaces thing is the way that even very narrow ledges -- things like the tops of bricks for the depth of the mortar line, and the caulking between panes of our windows -- manages to collect snow. And yes, it is so much brighter at night.

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Yeah, that limning of horizontality with a light brushing of snow is cool, and then this perilous heaping of snow on snow until the weight is too much for the ledge and the snow falls and is buried and replaced, this is amazing, too. I like it.

I have to keep reminding myself that I don't want to live somewhere with real winter, because in places with real winter, this pretty snow would be dealt with briskly before the next bit of pretty snow came in. There would be no snow paralysis, because there can't be, not for the whole winter. I'd do whatever I needed to do, as everyone did when I was growing up, and my hands and knees would crack and bleed all winter long. I'd know how to drive in snow again (in theory, I still do, but in practice, the first thing I learned about driving in snow is that if you don't need to, you really don't need to).

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Around 10 a.m. I was amazed because I could only see about 15 feet. The snowflakes were tiny, but many. And the sky was oh, so dark.

Now, 10:30 p.m., I can see for miles. I think I'm snowblind.

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Tiny, but many. Yep. We haven't had snow that thick during any of this storm, but Bellingham is more exposed to the weather than Seattle.

Even now, when it's not snowing (well, not snowing much; there may be some flakes falling), it's dark for day, except for the snow. I know perfectly well that it was much darker last night than it is now: the sky was that bizarre pinky-grey, snow fell lightly, and the snow on the ground glowed. It seemed lighter to me, because it was night, but bright. I'd love to see the full moon on it, but the full moon was back on the 12th.

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i have to remember to ask ian if all that refraction has any impact on his SAD--i have long contended that even though chicago has a lot more snowy days and such that all that white on the ground makes it a lot brighter here than it is usually in seattle during the winter.

stay warm!

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It's a theory. Glenn and I were talking about it as we walked to the post office today. Both of us find the occasional snowfall cheery. On the other hand, I think the prevalence of SAD in countries with plenty of snow, like Finland, suggests that it doesn't help enough.

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Gosh, it's been YEARS since you've had snow like that! It's bitterly cold here with deep neg temps at night and more snow due for us as well - many inches tonight. I have to say though, I love it :) I love having 4 real seasons each of them very intense and just when you can't stand winter spring explodes - and when summer is so oppressive you just can't breathe an icy frost changes all the trees and there's a lovely chill breeze...

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The last time I remember it being this snowy was the year my cat was diagnosed with chronic kidney failure, and I had to take her to an emergency vet through the snow. Telling time by life events: she lived for five years after that, my younger granddaughter was five when we buried the cat in the back yard, she's fourteen now, so it was fourteen years ago. Before that, the biggest snow I remember was in November, 1985, the year I bought this house. The house was being re-roofed as a condition of the sale, and the roofer left it uncovered, which meant his insurance company replaced my bedroom and kitchen ceilings, as well as the kitchen floor.

Your winter is much more sincere than ours, more sincere than the winter I knew growing up in central Ohio. I wouldn't mind visiting winter like yours, but I don't want to live in it.

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But of course - my parents had their roof re-shingled one summer, & the roofers left it uncovered because, well, it doesn't rain in California in the summer. Usually. Mostly.

I never noticed the light at night during snow (vut then again, I'm usually at some ski lodge in the middle of nowhere when there is snow on the ground).

But, have you noticed how quiet it is?

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Oh, the quiet. You hear the quiet right away, some of it from the lack of traffic, some of it from the muffling of the snow itself.

Last night it didn't snow. The sky was nearly clear. We could see Venus right after sunset. It was much darker looking out over the snow than it had been the night before when it was snowing. I theorize that it's lighter when it snows because the available light hits the falling snow as well as the snow on the ground.

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Yeah, that nighttime thing. I was up at 4am, not on purpose, and the shades over the bedroom windows were glowing and I was thinking, "What's going on here?"

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Glowing. Yeah. It's as though there's a bonfire just out of sight, but the bonfire doesn't flicker at all.

I just looked at the picture of your car and driveway. That is so not fair.

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The snow is wonderful as long as you don't have to go to work in it. I "played" on Sunday, shovelling snow; otoh, it took me three hours to get home tonight, because the buses were either nonexistent or overloaded. Took myself to dinner downtown, finally caught a bus around 7 and walked in my door at 8. The ONLY thing I miss about East Coast winters is that there's laws that people MUST shovel.

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Safe sidewalk maintenance is the law here, too, but many building owners don't understand that, and sometimes it's impossible to keep up with the snow. We've shoveled with three kinds of shovel, swept when a broom was the appropriate tool, attacked ice with a mattock, and scattered dirt for traction when appropriate. As I write, the damn sidewalk is under two inches of snow. Again.

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I hope you thaw out soon. Back here in the "mystic East" we've had 10 inches of snow followed by freezing rain and more snow.

Best wishes for the holidays!

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