Tis a cold day
It’s cold outside. Well, cold for Maryland. Yesterday there was a lot of wind as well, but today it’s just a calm, cold, cold, day.
I miss the seasons. I grew up in Maine in a small town called Mexico. Yeah, I know. It’s on the famous Maine sign at the Tourist Information Center just after you cross the bridge into Maine and get on the Turnpike. Mexico is not that far from So. Paris, Norway, and Sweden. But the point is that I grew up with seasons. There was Spring, Mud, Summer, Fall, Mud, and Winter. Yes, there were two seasons of Mud if it was rainy enough. And if Mud season was bad enough we had an additional season of mosquitos and black flies, but we had those anyway no matter what season (except Winter).
The Christmas Holiday season always meant snow. I think that during my childhood we only had one year when it didn’t snow (to stick on the ground) until Christmas Eve. That’s become more frequent over the years. But, here in Maryland, there’s has seldom been snow during the Winter; at least during the ten+ years we’ve lived here. People tell us they used to always have snow for Christmas but not anymore, or at least in our part of the state. Last Friday, we had a few bits of white falling from the sky but it was gone the minute it touched down. Even Maine doesn’t have snow except in the mountains and ski areas — and I think they make most of their snow in the ski areas now because the winters aren’t what they used to be.
I talked to my mom, who still lives in Maine, and she said it snowed the other day but then it rained and it was all gone or mostly all gone as far as she could see. She lives in town, but still — it’s December and there’s still no snow yet back in my home town in Maine.
So, here it is sixteen days until Christmas and once again it’s still Fall here in Maryland. The leaves have fallen and piled up where we haven’t done anything to get rid of them. They’re beautiful in their own way — orange, yellow, and some reds along with the dead browns. The trees are bare against the sky which today is a clear, cold blue of water ice.
It is beautiful but I miss the white drifts of snow that always meant Christmas is coming when I was a child. My husband just says I should be very glad we don’t have to shovel six feet of the stuff off our quarter-mile driveway. He’s right but I still miss the Winter season of snow. [Hyperion: That’s because she’s not the one that had to shovel it. I like snow too but, I’m just saying, there needs to be priorities :-)]
Guess I’m just feeling nostalgic today. Home with the tree lights on and a mystery to read (Bones of Betrayal by Jefferson Bass) which I’ll be reviewing for Gumshoe Review’s January issue. The story takes place in the cold. So, guess I’ll just go back to sipping my warm coffee with it’s Mocha Peppermint creamer and visit the world of the body farm and stop thinking about the snow that isn’t outside my window.