Comings and Goings: Life in Winter

For the first and maybe last time, I am living in a place where there is a lot of SNOW. For the past 21 years, I have lived in Tucson, Arizona, where snow falls about once in twenty years. Here in Utah, snow falls almost every other day. Differences in attitudes, due probably to the fact there ARE seasons, come into greater focus daily. A neighbor said, " Well, now we asked for the snow, we have it and now we are forced to enjoy it!" Being forced to enjoy something is a novel concept!!

All the Christmas and New Year's festivities have come and gone: and nowhere does the temporal reveal itself more than in a cold clime. Right across the street were our neighbors, people we barely knew -- but they had a grand light show each night -- I was never able to quite appreciate or accept all the brightly colored lights on the trees, the huge Christmas Star on the lawn, kleig-light strength, blinking on and off all night, with the words Merry Christmas also in bright red and green, also blinking on and off. It was a spectacular display of electric religion! As we are renters on a block full of homeowners, ours was the only home that did not have bright lights. My witty husband suggested we put a mirror on our front door.

But then, on December 26th, we noticed the across the street bright light neighbors packing away their lights, and putting everything in a U-Haul. When I asked them if they were moving, they said yes, one had gotten a job in Greeley, Colorado. the house would be put in the market, and by the day's end, the house was dark, no lights anywhere, and off they went, the U-Haul disappearing in the softly falling snow.

On the bright side, i learned to toboggan. I have not broken anything yet, but then again, it is only January.

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