Snow Days

There's no doubt that I have long reached the age when you glorify everything in the distant past, such as childhood winters always being white with all types of winter sports being possible during the whole season. If I think about it a little harder, I do remember one particular ski week with school that began with most of us ruining the surface/wax layer of our skis because there was so little snow, until there was heavy snowfall on the fourth day or so. 

For what feels like decades it has been mostly like this: first snowfall in November or early December on a random week day when nobody has time for outdoor activities and/or ski resorts are still closed, followed by weeks of mild weather inevitably resulting in very little snow (in particular for the amount of hopeful skiers) on slopes despite artificial snow during the Christmas vacation. Then, just as everyone is settled back into work in the first or second week of January, the perfect amount of snow magically appears and you have your desired Winter Wonderland...for about 5 minutes until chaos breaks out in the city and car exhausts render it brown and slushy. There's only one conclusion unless global warming eliminates snow for good until then: provided I am fit enough as a retiree I won't have silly things like work commitments preventing me from heading to the ski lifts immediately on a random Wednesday when conditions are perfect and the won't be any crowds. Obviously, glorifying the future works just as fine for me...