Writing Resources from Fifteen Minutes of Fiction

Obsevations... On Spring Snowstorms

Ah spring. A wonderful time of year when all the snow has melted away and the grass has started to show through once more. The seagulls and the geese return from their winter homes and slumbering bears awaken. Warm days and lazy nights await. But just when you think spring has finally come, Old Man Winter decides to give it one more go just in case you’ve forgotten him.

And it all happens on the one night you decide to leave your car out in the driveway instead of in the garage too. Now you have to shovel it out of a foot of snow. And on top of that you just finished putting away all your snow gear and have to go rooting around in storage looking for the darn shovel in the first place. Not to mention the fact that even if you get your car un-buried you won’t be able to drive anywhere anyway.

Everything is covered in a fresh layer of snow. Aside from the poor visibility and having to shovel the walk, this might not be so bad after all. You could get in one last run on the snowmobile, unless you’ve forgotten about the open water in the ditch under the snow and wind up stuck in a swamp. If you haven’t put away your cross country skis you could go out on the trail one last time, if you don’t mind having to re-break the whole thing in a blizzard. You could always build a snowman, at least if the snow is sticky enough, which it is, and you wind up soaking wet.

Well, looks like the best thing for a spring snowstorm is to curl up inside next to a cozy fire with a good book. It will probably be a book you’ve already read this winter, and the fire won’t be big since you ran out of firewood last week and didn’t think you’d need more so soon. You could watch T.V., except the signal was scrambled in the storm and there’s nothing but repeats on anyway. You could call a friend to talk but like the T.V. signal, cell phones are down too. At least you have your hard line, that’s something.

You could make a fresh batch of snow cones to pass the time. School will likely be canceled so either you won’t have to go or you’ll get to spend some quality time with the kids (provided they don’t drive you crazy first). You can finally get your spring cleaning done, since you don’t have anything else to do. If all else fails, you can go back to bed and sleep in, when was the last time you had the chance to do that?

So, if a little (okay a lot of) unexpected spring snow turns up, you can at least be happy with some time off for yourself. Use it wisely. And remember, spring has sprung and Old Man Winter can’t hold out forever.

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