a moment about Snow

I don't know about you but when I was a child I loved the snow. Now as an adult, snow takes on a completely different meaning.

If you were in Ohio or some other parts of the midwest this past weekend then you saw the snow fall like household pets. In my hometown, a suburb in the southern metropolitan area of Cleveland, Oh, over one foot of snow fell. 

I like an idiot drove around in my small car through hell, high water, slippery slopes, and frozen tundra with lousy windshield wipers. While driving to work or to meet friends, I was frustrated and  challenged by how normal drives were made more complicated and how the typical drive down the block was double or triple the time. I thought back at when snow became an obstacle instead of natures entertainment. 

When I was a child snow meant skiing, sledding, fort building, snow fights, shoveling snow in drive-ways for some extra cash, snow angels, and the ever constant amazement of how the snow fell. Snow had the amazing power to cancel school. It had the amazing power to cover up the ugliness of winter and outline it with something pure and sweet. Now, snow is brushing off my car, hoping it starts because the temperature dropped to 10 degrees. Now I hope salt trucks clear off the roads and make it that I don't crash into a tree, fire hydrant or worse, someone else. Not only do salt trucks prevent me from crashing but hopefully it will prevent the idiot in some SUV or truck, driving 10 -20 mph faster than the rest of society from crashing into me. Now, snow is much more complicated then it was when I was a young boy. 

I was driving a couple of days ago and even though I had been doing my best to stay focussed on the road, I was overcome by a group of children playing in the snow. They looked to be having the greatest time of their lives. I am sure they weren't but they certainly fooled me. I thought for a moment about my youth and how I lack the time and the energy to play in the snow. 

I hope that I do not lose the boy inside and that time will not melt all the innocence I once had for one of natures most beautiful actions.