Snowhere

Weather is always a popular subject for small talk.  In Wisconsin, we seem to be pros at talking about the weather.  No matter what is happening outdoors -- inclement or not -- we have an opinion about it, as if our discussing the weather can change or control it.  For the past couple of days, no matter where I've been, people have been comparing this year's weather to the last. We got clobbered with a big snowstorm a year ago this weekend.  This year, the temperature is cold but the grass is still green.  According to a local television meteorologist, the first snowfall of six-plus inches has arrived on or before December 10 for the past four years.  Not this year, though.  Once Daylight Savings Time ends, I start thinking winter thoughts, but a state climatologist was quoted in a recent newspaper article as saying that the meteorological winter season is technically from December through February.  I had to chuckle because there have been years when winter seems to begin at Halloween and end when the lilacs bloom in May.  With or without snow, cold or not, this December is a beautiful month and tonight's full-moon night sky is so magnificent that it warms my soul.