The funny thing about snow...

Living in Wisconsin, you get pretty used to having a lot of snow around in the winter time. Still, the #1 thing to do here in the winter is complain about the snow. It's funny though because the snow anxiety begins sometime in November when we start to look to the dark skies of a blustery day and say "You think it will snow?" over and over again. Sometime in December, it actually does snow.

The first snowfall of the year is always a big event. Usually, the first snowfall doesn't amount to more than a flurry or two that doesn't have the staying power needed to really make a mess of things. Still, Cheeseheads everywhere look to the roads and start to wonder if the ride home from work will be bad. It generally isn't but we do get a good chuckle the next day around the water cooler about some "idjit" or other that didn't remember to slow down and ended up in a ditch "off of 31". It's at this time each year the love/hate relationship with snow begins. Those who love it (like me) start wishing out loud for more which always leads those who hate it (almost everyone else) to say "Oh SURE! It's nice...if you don't have to go anywhere!" This statement always struck me as completely silly because, of course, we have to go somewhere. We have to work, eat and live so becoming a hermit is not exactly an option for everyone.

Eventually the "big one" does hit. Despite the bitching, people dig in, shovel out and barrel through and get where they need to go. They might get there late but that's a given so no one complains about it. For the next several days Cheeseheads do something I call "The Great Snowbank Story Swap". Everyone gets great pleasure one upping each other about the height, depth and girth of whatever snowbank they themselves had to shovel out of. Then, after a few days of cold winter sun, the snow starts turning "city brown" and the novelty wears off. We all seem to forget about it even though it's still there. We shuffle more when we walk so as not to slip and fall. We drive slower - which in Wisconsin is pretty damn slow since we already drive slower than almost any other state! But we get on with life.

Then it snows again... and again. Somehow, after the first rush of snow activity all subsequent snowfalls become ho-hum. We don't worry as much about the roads. We don't wonder if we'll get out of our drive ways. We have the morning routine of starting the car, heating it up, and scraping off the windows down pat. Last night it snowed a little on the way home from work and this morning my street was blanketed in white. It was silent at 6:30am as I scraped off my windshield and waited for the heat to kick in. I could hear the crunch of old snow covered by the new under my feet as I made my way around the car. Everything was cold, crisp and clean. That's what I love about the snow. It's that initial clean white feeling...the smell of it...the coldness...the occasional crystal shine in the streetlight. It's the part that doesn't last long because as the day and traffic start up the snow begins to melt and turns grey and loses its virginity.

If you've never walked in the new snow in the light of the full moon, you have no idea what I'm talking about. And part of me feels bad that you don't. I wish everyone could experience that once in their lifetime.