Snow

Today is a snow day for the children in Madison, West Virginia, and the neighboring cities and towns. There is an inch or possibly two on the ground outside. The calls announcing a snow day began soon after the first flakes began to fall last evening. Incredible. Having raised children in south Lake Tahoe, California where a snow day is called only if there were blizzard conditions during the night and there is at least a foot of snow still on the roads after the plows have gone through this Madison snow day is rather humorous. My son tells me that the snow will turn to ice in the bitter cold that accompanies it and then more snow will fall and that too will turn to ice. This causes many accidents. My humor dissolved remembering that last year my son was driving after a snowfall here and was in an accident. He didn’t anticipate the layer of ice that lay beneath the innocent looking layer of snow.

Madison, West Virginia is a small city of 2,500-3,000 people. For such a small town it has an impressive court house. That is where my son and his wife were married a year ago yesterday. Last night we went to dinner at the Peking Chinese restaurant in town, though really I think it was in Danville, the next town over. A small restaurant, we were one of two tables being served. The food was good, not excellent, but good and the company better. After dinner we left the restaurant, where outside it had started to rain, a rain that would turn into snow by the time we got back to the house. Outside the restaurant a border collie was wandering frantically around looking for his people. A young dog, with a collar, looking lost and confused, he was skittish around the few people who tried to reach him to read his tag and find him a way home. He reminded me of all the people out there in the cold weather, lost and confused, looking for a place to call home for the night.