This is cool. What we got here is the last remnants of the 8” of snow that dumped on Boulder yesterday. The Colorado sun came out in force today, melting most of the white stuff; the final traces are hanging tough here in the shadow cast by the ballfield fence, all nice and neat in a line, while Hooper and Lulu watch in despair as Jeannie and the other woman walk away with their dogs Joplin and Kyla:

Just goes to show you what a little shading can do in terms of reducing the amount of direct beam solar radiation that affects a given area.

P.S.
The bits of snow missing in the foreground were eaten by Hooper. No shading device could have prevented that.

OK, that’s quite enough already, with the fuckin’ snow. I get it. I live in Colorado. But the shit’s only useful in the mountains, which is apparently where half my office is headed today, to ski. I wouldn’t know, but hopefully by next weekend I will understand what this snow fever is all about. Right now, to me, all it is is a friggin’ nuisance.

After dropping Brenda off at the bus and our car off at the dealer to have the damage from last week’s snowstorm(s) repaired, I strapped on the gaiters and plodded through the snow to my office. Looks like we got 8-9” here already, and it’s supposed to snow most of the day again. It wouldn’t be so bad if Brenda didn’t have to be in Denver for the next three days.

Suddenly our fun little front wheel drive, low slung car ain’t so much fun anymore.

So, last Tuesday, Boulder got hit with its first snow of the year. The forecasts were calling for the possibility of “flurries” later on in the day, but the way it went down was that the flakes started falling around noon, and didn’t stop ‘till Wednesday morning.

Around 6:30 pm, I decided that things weren’t going to improve for a long time, and, despite being totally unprepared for the winter weather, I headed home on my bike. No gloves, no hat, no rain gear. At least I had a headlight on my bike.

A couple minutes into the ride, my front was completely white and I was slipping and sliding all over the place. The tires I bought a month ago will make great springtime tires, but they are out of their league when the snow and ice comes to town.

By the time I got home, I was freezing and my fingers were starting to bark at me. It took a minute to get them to behave enough to enter the security code on my garage door, and once I got into the warm, things got worse. I stood in the foyer with Emma meowing at me for five minutes while I blew into my hands to warm them up enough to unbuckle my helmet! After changing clothes I headed to the bike shop for some real snow tires, and fenders are next on the list. It’s time to accept the reality that winter has arrived.

My fingertips remained numb for three days after that ride, but the view from our bedroom the morning after the first snowfall was worth it, I feel:

True to form, the sun came out in full force Wednesday morning and melted much of the troublesome snow away and dried the roads out. It snowed again on Friday night, but once again, by today things were basically dry, which was great because it allowed me to get out and ride my latest two wheeled acquisition, which is surely going to be talked about in the coming days…