Snow Day!

I know today's snow is wreaking havoc on most people's lives, but I can't help but marvel at the way it changes my downtown environment - and crave more. After all, I'm fortunate enough that this truly feels like a "snow day", the kind you have when you're in grade school and you wake up to a white blanket outside and discover shortly after that - miracle of miracles! - your district is closed! It happens so rarely as an adult as to feel like a novelty (even if I was already going to take today off). Miracle of miracles - a snow day for me! Here, a shot of 4th Ave & Vine St looking toward downtown:


And even more than I do, Baylor loves the snow. He leaps, he bounds, he burrows his face deep in the drifts, rooting along for any scent buried beneath the flakes, then flings his head upward in a dramatic and joyful gesture, finally shaking his body free of the icy crystals in the way that dogs do, beginning at the head in a staccato movement down to his tail. I always wonder what dogs see, and think - and I think that they must know more than I give them (read: Baylor) credit for, because in the snow Baylor seems to look and truly survey his surroundings, taking in the familiar shapes as they are covered with mounds of white. Somehow, he always manages to look reflective (though I doubt he's reflecting upon much more than the next pure spot of snow upon which to lift his leg).

My family and I have done little things for those less fortunate today - my brother giving a stranded couple and their baby a ride home after their car plowed into a snow bank off the freeway, and me giving much more than the requisite dollar to the tenacious Real Change agent outside my local RiteAid. I know it's not much - and I write this not to seek a "pat on the back" but more to remind myself and others of our fortune, abundance, and joy. A "snow day" for me has served as a reminder of all I have, and all that I have still to give.

At the end of the day, I hope that many people, in some way, have found small wonders in today's weather. After all, who doesn't love a snow day?