So far this month I've blogged about the "signs of a Mayberry Christmas." They've been - in order of appearance - the city Christmas tree, the Christmas parade down Main St., and the infamous "Christmas Story" leg lamp.
These have been joyous signs of the season that warm our hearts and
leave us feeling all "ho-ho-ho" and "deck the halls" inside.
But I feel I must diverge from this merriment for a moment and engage in what pastors sometimes call "righteous indignation." To which I direct your attention to the above photo. This is a simple shot I took with my cell phone from outside our church's parking lot, looking across the way to the city building and their parking lot, and a baptist church just beyond that - a sign of the season. You see it? Perhaps you're befuddled - and if so, I imagine it's because you're trying to find a sign that is there. Ah, but there's the catch. It is not what's there that is the sign I'm speaking of, but what is not there.
Snow. Snow is what is not there. It's two days before Christmas and there is no snow.
It's not like we're not used to this. Snow in North Carolina, other than the far mountain regions (think Boone and the like) is a rare commodity. But it's never been this bad. I've lived in North Carolina all my life; and I hate to sound like an old curmudgeon, but I remember having two or three good snows every winter as a kid. By "good snows" I mean 5-8 inches that stuck around for a few days and got us out of school. The kind of snows you could sled in, make snow forts and snow angels, that sort of thing. Ah, the memories.
When we moved to Mount Airy, my wife and I erroneously thought we were heading to "snow central," being so close to the Blue Ridge Mountains. We had two good snows our first winter in 2003 and have the pictures to prove it. But since then - nothing. No snows worth writing about, and certainly no snows to play in. My four-year old has yet to experience a real snow. Four years old! Oh, we've had a dusting or two; and the boys see it and freak out and talk about building snowmen and the like. And my wife and I just look at them with sadness in our eyes, because we know the "dusting" (if you can even call it that) will evaporate within a matter of hours and they (and we, for that matter) will be left with nothing but dashed hopes.
I kind of feel like a Chicago Cubs fan who always holds out hope for a big season every year but is not all that surprised when it doesn't happen. Hopeful anticipation mixed with defeated resignation. That's the way it is here with snow. And to add insult to injury, we've had tons of cold weather and precipitation this month - just not together. Two weeks ago the daytime temperatures dipped below freezing, which is lower than usual. But the skies were a beautiful blue. Last week we had consecutive rainfall for about six days (which we needed)......and 50-60 degrees. Now we're back to a cold spell (it was 21 degrees when I woke up this morning; 34 now), but the precipitation is long gone. Is it too much to ask for the two to coincide, just once?? Meanwhile, other parts of the country are getting pounded with the white stuff. Sometime recently they closed schools in Detroit. In Detroit. When, pray tell, does that ever happen?
I'm used to people coming up to me and asking me to do something about this, as if being a pastor gives me influence over our world's weather patterns. I wish it were so. I typically respond with my well-worn line: Sorry - I'm in sales, not management. It makes them laugh and forget, for a moment, their initial query. But I don't forget. Because I feel the same way they do - we in this area are long overdue.
So - I'll just go ahead and say it. I want some friggin' snow. I want that picture above to be a full-fledged white-out so you can't even tell what you're looking at. I want the schools to shut down for days, and I want our family to get to actually play in the stuff instead of just talking about it. I want to make snowcream like my mom used to make (I need to get the recipie, but it can't be that hard). I want to have to fight off the crowds at the grocery store and wrestle a total stranger for that last gallon of milk and last loaf of bread as if my very life depended on it.
I want to wake up in the morning before anyone else does and get dressed and walk outside to get the paper, the first person to make footprints in the snow, and just stand there and soak in the beautiful, peaceful scene and the quiet sound of snowfall. I want to build a snow fort with the boys in our front yard, guarded by the world's best snowman. Heck, make that two. I want to get the sled (if we had one) and take the boys sledding down the hill around the corner from us, and do it over and over and over again. I want to try out the all-wheel drive on my CR-V and see how it handles in the snow, since I haven't had a chance to do that yet. Maybe even help a stranded motorist or something. I want to make chili in the crock-pot and hot chocolate on the stove for lunch. And when the boys are down for afternoon naps because they're so exhausted (you know, from playing all morning in the snow), I want to build a fire in the fireplace and sit in my favorite living room chair, laptop in hand, gazing at the continuous snowfall outside the window, and post a blog about the mounds and mounds of snow we got.
The forecast for Christmas Day is 50 degrees and those beautiful North Carolina blue skies. Sigh. God in heaven, bring an end to our suffering and have mercy on your snow-deprived people! But if it not be your will, just give us sunny skies and 80 degrees so we can go to the beach.
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