We got our first snow of the season today! 
I was out for a nice long afternoon walk (crappy back, and I didn't move much yesterday so I was a bit "in debt" to myself), and around half past three it started. First tiny little flakes that swirled slowly towards the ground. Then larger and larger ones until the air was thick with what looked like small lumps of cotton. By then the sky was all dark, and the flakes were so large they actually cast shadows on the ground from the streetlights.
The air was nearly completely still, so it actually looked like the shadows slowly moved in towards the center of each streetlight's area of light. Very peculiar effect, yet fascinating. The way each shadow disappeared when the flake hit ground was also a bit strange just by looking at it, normally I'm not terribly used to vanishing shadows!
After a while of this heavy snowfall it lightened up considerably, even to the point of pretty much stopping entirely. I can't say I was terribly disappointed by that, because while I enjoy snowfall as much as the next person - and probably more so - I was getting rather wet and cold. I didn't have my thick winter jacket, but rather one that's just wind-resistant, with a long-sleeved sweater and T-shirt underneath, and a pair of plain jeans on me legs. My clothes were intended to keep me nice and toasty as I was walking, I hadn't planned on getting half-buried in snow!
By this point I'd been out for over an hour and a half, with about thirty minutes at least getting snowed on, but once it stopped falling, I started drying off again. I tend to get very warm when I walk, so this helped I suppose (evaporation cooling in action; keeps my CPU temps low!)...
It's been first advent this past sunday, which means people start putting up their christmas lights and such. I love this holiday, even though I have no particular love for the religion that spawned it. It makes our dark winters a lot cheerier, when the sky goes all dark at 3:30PM on a cloudy day, you need some cheeryness I say. The snowfall brought with it another added bonus benefit: cars aren't nearly as noisy riding on a layer of fresh snow as they are on asphalt! Unfortunately, said layer tended to be rather slippery in places, making my feet slide out from under me twice in as many hours. Fortunately, only a few people saw me each time.
Then as I was getting closer to home, the snowfall returned with a vengeance, thus completely neutralizing my personal clothes-drying ability (and then some). I was almost dripping by the time I arrived at my local thaifood joint, where I had a nice chicken wok-stew with coconut milk, red and yellow peppers, red onion, broccoli and bamboo sprouts, spiced with secret thai goodlyness and chilli oil with rice on the side. Yum.
And now I'm home in front of my PC again. Obviously.
I was out for a nice long afternoon walk (crappy back, and I didn't move much yesterday so I was a bit "in debt" to myself), and around half past three it started. First tiny little flakes that swirled slowly towards the ground. Then larger and larger ones until the air was thick with what looked like small lumps of cotton. By then the sky was all dark, and the flakes were so large they actually cast shadows on the ground from the streetlights.
The air was nearly completely still, so it actually looked like the shadows slowly moved in towards the center of each streetlight's area of light. Very peculiar effect, yet fascinating. The way each shadow disappeared when the flake hit ground was also a bit strange just by looking at it, normally I'm not terribly used to vanishing shadows!
After a while of this heavy snowfall it lightened up considerably, even to the point of pretty much stopping entirely. I can't say I was terribly disappointed by that, because while I enjoy snowfall as much as the next person - and probably more so - I was getting rather wet and cold. I didn't have my thick winter jacket, but rather one that's just wind-resistant, with a long-sleeved sweater and T-shirt underneath, and a pair of plain jeans on me legs. My clothes were intended to keep me nice and toasty as I was walking, I hadn't planned on getting half-buried in snow!
By this point I'd been out for over an hour and a half, with about thirty minutes at least getting snowed on, but once it stopped falling, I started drying off again. I tend to get very warm when I walk, so this helped I suppose (evaporation cooling in action; keeps my CPU temps low!)...
It's been first advent this past sunday, which means people start putting up their christmas lights and such. I love this holiday, even though I have no particular love for the religion that spawned it. It makes our dark winters a lot cheerier, when the sky goes all dark at 3:30PM on a cloudy day, you need some cheeryness I say. The snowfall brought with it another added bonus benefit: cars aren't nearly as noisy riding on a layer of fresh snow as they are on asphalt! Unfortunately, said layer tended to be rather slippery in places, making my feet slide out from under me twice in as many hours. Fortunately, only a few people saw me each time.
Then as I was getting closer to home, the snowfall returned with a vengeance, thus completely neutralizing my personal clothes-drying ability (and then some). I was almost dripping by the time I arrived at my local thaifood joint, where I had a nice chicken wok-stew with coconut milk, red and yellow peppers, red onion, broccoli and bamboo sprouts, spiced with secret thai goodlyness and chilli oil with rice on the side. Yum.
And now I'm home in front of my PC again. Obviously.
