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<\/figure>\n\n\n\n. . .and thou, beside me, shivering in the wilderness. . . Winter storm Fern (so named, according to my sister Laura, by the dramatic weather people) has struck its tiny fists into my home state of Virginia. Laura says that this sort of thing is pretty much par for January, and feels that everybody should just calm down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
My sister Mary offers a brilliant counterpoint, stating that the snow and sleet accompany temperatures that are \u201cas cold as a witch\u2019s elbow.\u201d My dear niece Helen says that walking on the surface of the sleet-enhanced snow is like, she imagines, walking across a giant dish of cr\u00e8me brulee. Such wonderful imagery; I guess I come by my creative flair honestly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I remember winters in my hometown of Powhatan, Virginia. As an older teenager and adult, I noticed that nobody knows what to do in a winter storm except drive faster. My son Jon suggests, tongue firmly in cheek, the following logic for this behavior: driving faster means less time on the road and therefore less time to get into an accident. Many winter-fender-bender (and worse) scenes have pinpointed the flaw in this reasoning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Go back a little further in time, and I wasn\u2019t worried about roads. My whole world revolved around the sledding hill in back of the house. You see, that hill was once an apple orchard, and had a lot of tiny whoop-de-doo hills, only one big tree to crash into, and an opposing hill on the other side to prevent too much momentum from building up. So we had epic neighborhood sledding parties, complete with frozen toes, hot chocolate, and sopping-wet sleepovers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ah, winter, equal parts inconvenience and fun, danger and delight, crystalline beauty and muddy slush. However you experience it, know that spring will be here before you know it, and look for the points of light reflecting from the snow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n