It's new and improved snow. At last, we have snow that sticks to grass, trees and other natural substances without sticking to roads.
The kids can go sledding, make snowmen and bomb each other with snowballs. Their parents can safely go to the store for toilet paper and bread. What could be better?
To a former resident of the northern climes of New York state, this snow, which miraculously appeared on Saturday, was a very welcome sight. Those of us from snowy regions consider winter one of the very best things about Maryland.
In the first place, it ends. This is a real treat to someone who graduated under leafless trees, marching across brown grass. There is never so much snow that you are housebound for days on end. The temperature is never so low that the dogs' feet freeze to the ground.
Of course, the lack of true winter tempts us to do things we normally would have considered to be insane, such as buying a home that sports a common driveway measurable in terms of miles. The driveway is truly enormous when it snows. Clearing it with a shovel is no treat, but watching the toy snow plows clear the streets makes it much more fun, as the neighbors compete with their snow removal implements as if there really was snow to remove.
First, there are the "leavers." These people are most practical, their snow removal method uses no energy whatsoever. Mother Nature does the trick for them -- they just wait until it melts.
Then there are the shovelers, whose method uses only human energy.
There are the snow blowers. Blowers won't remove "real" snow (more than one foot is real snow).
I used to consider snow blowers useless, but our driveway has taught me to want one. Here, they are quite sufficient.
Then there are the fanatics, who really belong somewhere in Texas, where everybody believes bigger is better. These neighbors drag out the farm size tractor, complete with a roll bar and equipped with a plow sufficient to clear all the snow from Canada. I am always transfixed at this sight, which is probably the whole point, and once one of the "Texans" cleared my driveway for us, which instantly earned him a place in my heart.
If I ever move again, perhaps it will be to Texas, where bigger can mean a bigger heart, too.
And, of course, there really is no such thing as winter down there.
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Calling all Scouts! The Klondike Derby is about to happen, right here at Piney Run Park.
