When I walked out of Mighty Fine after lunch today there was water coming from the sky. Just taken on face value this is a strange thing to say because it doesn’t rain here anymore. The other thing it doesn’t do here anymore is Winter so imagine my shock when I walked out into the parking lot and didn’t get wet because the water was bouncing off of me. Truly I am a wizard and my might is awesome and terrible. That and it was sleeting.
My plans for today were install new license plates, hair cut, Mighty Fine and then down to Houndstooth for coffee and work. The license plates are only half done because I don’t have the technology to install the front holder thing. I guess I’ll take it to the dealer tomorrow afternoon and get them to put it on and finally do the state inspection. Hair cut went as expected. Mighty Fine was crowded with the post-church crowd. Initially I decided to brave the weather and drive into town for my coffee but about three miles down I-35 it really started coming down in earnest and I thought better of subjecting the new car to the aggressive, weather agnostic Texas drivers and came home. By the time I pulled into the driveway there were actual snow flakes mixed in with the sleet.
It reminds me of the first winter I spent in my house. Cypress had, in typical bizarre fashion, scheduled its Winter Christmas Holiday Solstice party for Valentine’s day at the Driskill Hotel and the weather turned very cold over the course of the day. I went down, had dinner, chatted with the people I saw every day at work and then left to visit my friends Hunter and Cali. I watched them play poker for a little while and then looked out the back window and saw snow. We all reveled in the novelty and had a little miniature snowball fight. Then I realized that I needed to get home before the roads got really bad and the drunks from 6th started filtering up into the suburbs. I got all the way up Parmer, down 1431 and into the neighborhood very slowly but without incident. The street through the neighborhood hadn’t been driven since the snow started so it was just a flat white blanket of snow. I crept down the road and, with the engine idling, touched the brakes, instantly locking the wheels and sliding in slow motion onto the curb of the hated traffic circle. In shame, I drove off and over the two blocks to home. At this point it was after 1:00 in the morning. I stood out on the back porch in the dark watching the snow fall and listening to it whisper. If you don’t get snow regularly it is beautiful and serene. I felt like the only living thing around. The next morning all of the neighborhood kids made the saddest little foot-tall muddy snowmen which melted by the end of the day.
NOAA says we’ll be back in the 60’s tomorrow and 70’s Tuesday but today is winter.