Pretty much every winter, weather forecasters in the Ozarks will once or twice predict snowfall of “one-to-three” inches or the like and none falls.
In my estimation, that’s not a bad thing, because any time snow doesn’t fall in my neighborhood, I’m OK with that.
But every now and then, the opposite will happen and a winter storm manifests without the usual warning. Like last week when we were told there might be a “dusting” in our area and about three inches fell on us.
I guess my take on this particular episode is I’m just glad that’s all we got. I’ve lived in a place where the forecast was for “possible mixed rain and snow” and eight inches of a mashed potato-like substance piled up before the clouds went away.
But I must say that when there’s a minor snowfall like last week’s, it provides an opportunity to really enjoy the winter experience. I told my San Diego-based brother it was “enough to be pretty, but not enough to be a major hassle.”
And it was definitely enough for one dog I know – Gertie (the Permapup) – to “get her winter on.” I’ll share a funny story about that.
Last Thursday morning, I had just gotten out of bed and was on auto-pilot heading for the coffee maker in the kitchen. My head at one point pointed toward the kitchen window, and I had one of those classic double take moments.
I saw the snow-covered scene in the backyard and was like, “What the?”
Gertie was also on autopilot, and did that big dog stretch thing with her front legs extended and hind end up. Then she said good morning with her little high-pitched and sort of quiet “yip.”
Then I did what I always do and asked, “you want to go outside?”
She knows exactly what that means and headed straight for the door. Gertie loves snow, and I had a feeling I was about to see something funny. She delivered.
I opened the door and she routinely walked out into the carport. But when she reached the edge and realized the situation, it was like she stopped in her tracks and gasped.
Then Gertie took off like a bullet and ran at top speed in a figure-eight pattern through the snow, her snout dipping in the white stuff at random moments without so much as slowing the least bit. I laughed out loud and said, “how about that, girl!”
She came up to me and barked loudly, as if to express her excitement and yell, “there’s snow on the ground!” Then she took off again for another set of eights.
My wife and I had a friend visiting from Los Angeles, and she had never seen so much winter first-hand basis. Our driveway is fairly long and winding, and at one point she asked, “how do you know where to drive?”
As the next few frigid days set in, she was amazed to see the mercury in our outside thermometer drop below the zero mark. But as the cold days added up, the enjoyment did, too.
We even bundled up and went for a long off walk one day, surrounded by snow-graced forest and treading on squeaky frozen water (you know, the way snow gets after if falls and the temperature drops to single digits or lower).
We took a bunch of photos, and Gertie sniffed a whole bunch of everything.
I’m not a fan of big winter storms, but I do like the smaller ones. They’re a great snippet of living in a place where there really are four seasons.
And thank God they don’t require digging your car out of a drift.
Doug Davison is a writer, photographer and newsroom assistant for the Houston Herald. His columns are posted online at www.houstonherald.com. Email: ddavison@houstonherald.com.