Snow in October

Last Tuesday, I was lying in bed while Doug got ready to leave for work. He was flying to St. Louis that day. After he kissed me goodbye and left with his suitcase, I turned over to go back to sleep. Suddenly, Doug stuck his head in the door and said, “Just so you know, it’s snowing outside.”

“What?!!” I said, wide awake now. He assured me that it really was snowing, so I got up and raised the shade on the large double window in our bedroom. Sure enough, a light snow was falling. I guess this is the first time I’ve ever seen snow in October. It lasted throughout most of the morning, lightly dusting the ground and covering the roofs. At times it came down hard. I turned on the fireplace and enjoyed our first snow here in the mountains. It was beautiful. The sun came out later that afternoon and melted it all away.

We expect to get more snow here than we did at home, but not that much more. My parents have been here for nine years, and have never had a major snow or ice storm. (Now watch us have the worst blizzard in years now that we are here!) Up here, you usually get two or three snows each winter. Since our house has a southern exposure, the sun quickly melts any snow that falls.

If we ever do have a major storm and lose power, both Daddy’s house and ours has a generator. Ours is mounted to the back of Daddy’s tractor sitting under the carport and uses gasoline. It connects to the house wiring and will run the heat and lights if needed. Daddy has a big fancy-smancy generator that automatically kicks on when the power goes out. Maybe some day we can afford something like that!

I don’t know what winter in the mountains will be like for us. Right now, everything is beautiful with all the red, yellow, and orange leaves, but soon they will fall. The mountains look rather bleak without any color, but maybe I will come to appreciate a different kind of beauty in winter. It will certainly be colder up here. At one time, that would have really worried me, but now that I am a “hot mama,” cold doesn’t sound so bad.

I’ve never put pictures on my blog before, but I am going to try this time.