The Here and Now

Right now in Alaska it is cold, there is snow on the ground, the sun has made its last appearance for the season, and the temperature has dropped into the negatives.
If I were still there I would have, long ago, posted about the first snowfall. That post would have been some time in August.

Now, it is well into November and I am happy to report that we had our first snow.
Big white flakes of non-negatively temp-ed fun came falling from the sky.

The South Africans went nuts. Many of them had never seen snow before and impromptu snowball fights broke out across campus.

There was much frolicking.

It even stuck to the ground. About a half inch of fluffy white covering everything.

As I stood out in the nowhere near blizzard conditions I had a few moments of “homesickness” for Alaska.

I missed the real constant presence of snow. The big coats. The icebergs.
The more-than-crunchy/squeaky sound of below freezing footsteps.
Not to mention the actually cold ice…
I even missed the ice flakes forming on my eyelashes.

Then I remembered, it is the end of November and I am standing outside in a thin leather jacket and a pair of Birkenstock sandals during the first snowfall of the year.
I barely feel the cold and haven’t yet dug out my gloves. (Though it might happen soon for the sake of snowballs.)

Though Alaska will always hold a place in my heart I am quite glad to be somewhere less extreme.
At least as far as the weather goes.