The snow was forecasted and by late in the evening the snow began to fall.
When I woke up early the next morning I looked out the bedroom window and saw the the world had turned entirely white.
The snow was still falling as I quickly pulled on some clothes and sleepily wandered down the hall, through the living room and into the kitchen to make some coffee.
As coffee was heating I opened up the kitchen curtains and the living room curtains and peered outside.
The road was gone.
Snowing was coming down in those big heavy flakes that are so unusual in our high desert plains environment, and it did not look like it was going to stop anytime soon.
Good, I thought.
Bring it on.................
30 minutes later I heard Kory jump down from the bed in the spare bedroom - the bed (and indeed the bedroom) that she has claimed as her own.
As she reached the entrance to the living room she stretched her long body in one final wake-up stretch, and then stood watching me intently with wagging tail and expectant look on her sweet face.
OK - let's go outside.
She eagerly let out an excited yelp and I quickly ssshhhdd her, hoping to keep her from waking a still-sleeping LC.,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
It was early but it was light outside, and I didn't realize how little light there actually was until I downloaded these pictures and saw that the camera had transformed this early-morning world into beautiful shades of blue.
As Kory sprung through the snow, happily jumping and playing, I wandered in the shin deep snow.
For all the small snowfalls that we had had for the past month or so (that had mostly fallen overnight and then disappeared during the day) this was the snowfall that officially introduced us to winter 2016.
This one would stay.
Kory continued to happily play in the snow while I wandered the silent yard and silent fenced-in world snapping pictures....................
By late morning we all took a break in the snowfall as an opportunity to head outside once again.
The world looked so different from the world of yesterday.
Atomic City is not a pretty town.
It has pretty qualities about it that I can find to take pictures, but overall it is a non-descript community in the desert.
But when the snow falls?
When the snow falls this BFE town turns into something special.
Snow smoothes out the towns rough edges.
Makes art out of the monotonous.
Makes frozen still lifes out of the everyday.
As I wandered safely into the middle of the silent street and looked in both directions I was gratified with what I saw.
Beautiful winter................
And a joyous dog relishing being able to do what she normally is not permitted to do - run down the middle of the road...............
The blue world of the morning had been replaced by the black and white world of the remainder of the day.
Our 7 foot standing horse in the snow.
Although it had started snowing again the day felt mild, and while Kory continued to happily wander between the front and back yards, LC cleaned snow off and warmed up the vehicle while I shoveled the walkway.
It was a beautiful day..............
My treasure chest.
The old, heavy metal strong box that my youngest son retrieved from a creek bed in Tennessee when he was 13 years old.
The box that probably weighs 40 pounds and that we have dragged all over the country with us because I refuse to leave it behind.
The box that I asked LC to dig out of the frozen ground up in Juneau Alaska, because I refused to give that city one more piece of me.
The box that is worth more to me than almost anything I own because my son found it at a time when I had placed him under house arrest for a year.
When he was on probation with the courts.
When I pulled him out of school and then home schooled him for a year.
When his room was tossed weekly, he could not accept or make phone calls, could not visit or have visitors, and when the only time he was out of my sight was at a church youth group once a week.
When he found the "treasure chest" and wanted me to have it as a gift.
When he waded in thigh deep water to get it, struggled to pick it up, struggled to bring it back to me, and then happily handed it to me.
As a gift.
It means the world to me..................
I wonder if the snow loves the trees and fields, that it kisses
them so gently? And then it covers them up snug, you know, with a white
quilt; and perhaps it says, "Go to sleep, darlings, till the summer
comes again.............Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures In Wonderland And Through the Looking Glass
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