THE BIG ONE?

Snow's a'comin'!

That's what weather reports have been warning us about for the last couple of days. Everyone's been talking about it with dread or anticipation, depending on their attitude. And those with built-in storm-alert systems, such as bones which ache, joints that stiffen, or sinuses that clog, have been exchanging body prognostications with one and other as to when the storm will get here and how severe it is apt to prove regarding snowfall.

The weather professionals started out predicting 2-4 inches which was expected to arrive yesterday. Then the arrival time got pushed to last night and reduced to a half inch, with an additional 2-4 inches today. At 4:30 a.m. (thanks to a mistaken phone call) when I looked outside, the ground was snowless. Checking weather on my iPod before trying to get back to sleep, I found the revised forecast to be snow starting before noon, 4-8 inches of accumulation today, with an additional 4-6 inches tonight and 2-4 inches tomorrow. Now they're saying 3-7 inches today, an additional 3-7 inches tonight, and a final inch tomorrow.

The human oracles agree—expect the worst. This storm could very well be the "Big One!" The snowstorm of the season.

At least half the adults and all the kids are praying this turns out to be the case—the Big One—and the bigger the better. Snowfall amounts sufficient to invoke snow day rules for schools and many businesses have been few and far between hereabouts this time around. In fact, snowy days and total accumulation amounts have been under the average this winter. The usual freebie stay-at-home days have not provided those impromptu vacations everyone so looks forward to, and has honestly come to expect as due payment for all the rest of the varying weather a Buckeye has to endure through the year—from spring tornados to summer heat, and early frosts which kills and blackens your tomatoes before you get a chance to pick 'em.

Personally, I'm rooting for snow, snow, and more snow. Bring on the Big One. Let the winds howl and the drifts pile. Flakes as big as my thumbnail which float like goosedown, swirl sideways, or pour straight down. Give us a good old fashioned blizzard. A storm which blots out the far riverbank, sends droves of birds to the feeders, and makes the blazing hearth the living center of the cottage.

The good news is that it began snowing more than five hours ago. The bad news is that until the past hour, flakes were fine, wet, and not doing much of a job of sticking; even now, the ground is barely covered with white. Still, I'm not giving up my dreams just yet. Maybe this is only a prelude; or not even the music, simply the orchestra tuning up before the concert. I hope so. It's looking a bit more serious out there. Thank goodness! This has been a long, tiring, pressurized week of too much work, unexpected troubles, and not much fun. I could use some down time on the couch, stretched out before the fire, with a hot drink and a good book, Myladylove fiddling with some of her beadwork, safe and sound, and Moon the dog slumbering peacefully on the rug.

I'll let you know how it turns out…