A Window to Winter
Posted on December 21, 2012 Posted by John Scalzi 23 Comments
As I noted on Twitter this morning, at pretty close to the exact moment of the solstice, we got an automated call from my daughter’s school telling us that classes were cancelled due to snow. This means that Athena’s winter break starts a day early; she’s got until January 7th to hang about. It also means that after only one very minor dusting earlier in November, we have our first appreciable amount of snow for the season. That it happens on the first day of Winter seems perfectly appropriate. That said, I wish I hadn’t have had to drive in it to take my wife to work; the roads were a real mess, and I passed more than one car in a ditch (and one car with its front end wrapped around a telephone pole).
No apocalypse, of course. I understand some people thought it would be timed to the exact moment of the solstice, but clearly that did not pan out. I suppose there’s still time for the End of Days, but if I were you I would go ahead and make plans for the weekend. I have.
In any event: Welcome to Winter. And if you’re in the Southern Hemisphere, don’t get cocky. Your time will come, my friends.
Well, I went ahead this morning and wrapped the gifts for my family’s get-together tomorrow, which I absolutely would NOT have done if I thought there was the slightest possibility that tomorrow wouldn’t come. I HATE to wrap things.
Congrats to Athena on the snow day. Here in Huber Heights our first day of the break was today anyway, which made the weather a little bit of a let-down. We went the entire year last year without even a single 2-hour delay, much less a snow day, which was just plain wrong. Nothing beats that automated call from the school telling me I’m good to roll over and go back to sleep.
She’s got the whole 2 weeks off, huh? We head back on the 2nd, which seems a little harsh. Never had break end the day after New Year’s before.
It’s soooo cold this morning. Must be in the 60s. Dreadful. I don’t know how it can change from 80s one day to 60s the next. Though it does make up for August…
The insane thing is we’re driving towards the snow in a few days to see family. I hope we survive. (And I hope the blizzard has gone away and been cleared up…)
We don’t get snow days, we get “wind” days, where there is no power. I really don’t want to relive that again. Snow is prettier. Downed trees, not so much.
I already posted this on my Facebook page, but it’s worth sharing here since The World Is Ending Today According to The Mayan Calendar. Plan accordingly.
Solstice Greetings, all!
Winter? Haven’t seen that since 2007! (Northern hemisphere, but quite close to the equator).
It was freezing last night. It’ll be in the 70’s by Monday.
First day of sliding is always horrible. Slow down and snow tires. It used to be that here in Minnesnowta that FDOS was an annual event, but lately it seems to be every day we get more than a half-inch. Not going to be above freezing for the next week, they say.
Happy Mayan New Year!
The Mayans had over 100 words for snow. #LittleKnownFictions
We already had our fun. First snow in Pretoria, South Africa in 30 years. Didn’t even reach the ground, but was the first time that I actually saw snow falling.
Isn’t it right about now that Snowpocalypse start showing up on the news shows?
NE Ma, here. No snow. Up global warming!
Since this is my Apocalypse, it being my 43rd birthday (going from the answer) to 43 (the number of the Bush, Dubya, to be precise), kick off isn’t until tequila time in Cancun.
Enjoy most of your solstice ;-)
Snow days were always special because they were unexpected – and because I could pile up on the couch with a book for pleasure. It was on a snow day that I started Heinlein’s The Door into Summer, which I thought pretty close to a perfect day.
Snow on the ground? In December? Glad we don’t have that kind of weather here. ;)
I didn’t know Darke county got that much snow–we’ve got barely an inch down here in Fairborn. Or was it because of ice caused by the rain-snow switchover? Then again, Ohioans do seem to go all soft in the head and forget how to drive the first time we get road-affecting snowfall. Overall, the snow is pretty, but this wind I could do without. Brrr.
The End comes not with Fire, but in Ice.
My cat is looking for the Door Into Summer
Even some of those to the north of you, are still waiting on this thing called snow. We got rain today, instead. It has actually been a delightfully mild past few days. Not that I am rubbing it in, Actually for at least once this past decade, I’d like some snow on Christmas. It isn’t always polar bears and igloos up here in Canada.
Not sure us Southern Hemisphere types can ever look forward to much snow… Here in Australia there’s only a tiny fraction of land that ever gets regular snow, and a few other places that getting occasionally (I live near a mountain range that gets that “sometimes snow”. To be honest it would be appealing to be somewhere that it snows a lot, at least just once!
Of course right now it’s another hot summer, days a least 36-38 degrees Celsius in the last week. Can our time come soon…?!
It’s only raining here in sunny California, but that also means people forget how to drive. We’ve had long stretches without the usual winter rain, and some freaky unseasonably warm spells, so everyone’s just hopelessly confused about what weather we might find. Might be pouring rain and below freezing at night; might be t-shirt weather till after dark.
Snow days when I was a kid generally also coincided with no power, which is not nearly as much fun as being able to sit around watching TV or baking or such. It meant wearing all your clothes and huddling around the fireplace with the whole family, and getting a place by the fire faster than the kitty can is impossible.
Off-topic: I am tickled that Scalzi’s Twitter icon is the little guy with the chicken bucket, as he’s always been my favorite part of that artwork.
Oh, god, soft in the head doesn’t cover it how drivers in the non-mountain parts of North Carolina get. I’m quite sure some people got stupid today, when we had six flakes.
And if you’re in the Southern Hemisphere, don’t get cocky. Your time will come, my friends.
Soon I hope. I am NOT expecting to enjoy this summer.
Mr Scalzi, you are welcome to all the winter you can handle there, complete with snow and so forth. I’m looking forward to the weather here in Western Australia heating up even further so that I can maybe get through a day or two without needing to put on shoes to protect my feet (and thus the rest of me) from the cold of our concrete foundations seeping up into my feet and chilling me. Roll on the first 40C day of summer…
Yes, my internal thermostat is rather badly borkened. It means I spend the whole of winter (and this is coastal Western Australian winter – cool and wet compared to our summers, but never really reaching frost temperatures except very occasionally) piling on the layers and praying that I’ll be able to warm myself up sufficiently to defrost my hands enough to be able to handle the keyboard. If we have a working heater and enough money to fund using it, I’m crouched over that all winter.
Just for the fun of it, I seem to have settled down with a guy who is the exact opposite of me – he runs hot all year round, which means he can handle our winters just fine (except that he overheats any time he’s in a public place which is even vaguely enclosed) but he basically spends summer sat in front of the fan or hiding out anywhere that’s likely to be air-conditioned.