waiting for good snow

driving into town this morning, i looked towards the la plata mountains (i always feel funny typing that....it just seems wrong to put "the" in front of another article, even though it's in another language and it's a proper noun), i noticed that the snow we got a few nights ago has receded into the crevices and shadowed contours of the peaks now, with little left anywhere else. we haven't seen any snow yet on the mesa floor,and only flakes in the sky downtown. the forecast is made up of a dozen suns, and a big ZERO in the chance of precipitation section. Everyone seems to be squirming here in Durango. For many people, the lack of snow is equivalent to the lack of fun, money, and energy. some folks even go so far as to make predictions about the number of people suffering from depression using the average daily temperature and the accumulation of snow to date as measures.

I like snow, but it hasn't been a part of my life for the past five years. i'm more impacted by the shortened days, the lack of leaves on the trees, the cold stuck in the marrow of my bones after trying to find my truck in the dark night. it's true, it's all a little more tolerable when there's snow on the ground, and there is something magical about walking across hundreds of thousands of perfectly shaped crystals, and hearing the squeaky crunch of them fitting together in compaction. but i don't get how snow, for some here, is the raison d'etre. and that everything else is just a practice of patience. for them, i hope it snows soon. for me, i just hope it snows on my birthday.