Day 34: First Snow

It snowed last night. A big heavy snow that left five inches in it's wake. We walked out this morning, sliding on the icy pavement, headed to the Ocean. The Ocean is incredible just after a snow fall. The tide had already changed, it was heading out, and so we were surrounded in a wonderland of white only to step on sandy shores that sparkled with the morning sun. It was like two realities one step apart. Today the snow was beautiful and we laughed and held hands and squinted into our camera. But it hasn't always been this way.

In Oregon we rarely saw snow. We lived in a basin and the snow would just blow right over us, trapped by the ten thousand foot Siskiyou and Cascade Mountains. In Oregon you pay five dollars and get a permit to cut down any live Christmas Tree on State Land. This was about the coolest thing we'd ever heard of, so we headed toward Klamath Falls and down a dozen windy roads to search for our tree. There wasn't any snow in the valley, but the mountains were just loaded. Like our beach, you could literally see the line in the dirt road where mud gave way to snow. And the snow went deep. We found a trail and released Micky to roam the woods in search of dragons or snowmen or whatever it is that puppies search so actively for. I saw about a dozen beauitful trees, but no tree was quite good enough for Rich. We were tossing snowballs back and forth, my feet were getting cold. And so I made a decision, one that we still speak of today, and in my slight annoyance, I grabbed a handful of snow and shoved in down my husbands back. I thought I was being cute. He didn't see it that way. He tackled me in the snow and what had started as an innocent snowball fight became an all-out brawl. He pushed my face in the snow bank, I smeared fistfuls of snow onto his face, pushing his glasses into his eyes. We went from having fun to having no fun, instantly. Micky stopped and stared at us, perhaps he'd realized that we were the dragons and snow men he had gone in search of. I was so angry I refused to wipe the snow from my face, I just walked back to the truck alone and sat in the cold that was now dripping down my own back.

We laugh about it now, about the only time we've ever really tried to hurt each other. But this weekend we're going to cut down a tree again, and I wonder if there will be snow. And who will throw the first snowball. This time, if I end up back at the car, I'm taking the keys with me.