The Air Up Here
They've predicted snow here in the District. It's supposed to come down, 3-6 inches, within the next 24 hours. Of course, they could be wrong (they frequently are), but that won't stop drivers from panicking, I'm sure.
There's something about the air just before a snowfall. The air is crisper, sharper. The adjective "cleaner" also springs to mind, but then seeing as I live and work in downtown DC, I'm sure the air is as smog-polluted as ever. But in any event, I enjoy the smell of the air just before a snowfall. Something pure about it. It's not a Febreeze-type clean -- much as I enjoy the smell of Febreeze, you can kinda tell it's artificial -- but much more genuine (which is as it should be). It's much easier to transport yourself to some country retreat when the air is significantly cooler.
I've apparently lowered my threshold (why does this word not have two H's?) for cool, crisp air. When I was living in Hawai'i, the temperature had to dip to but 65 degrees before I'd notice it and appreciate the impending approach of fall (such as it is in Hawai'i). Out here on the East Coast, the weather needs to hit at least 45 before I consider the air "cleaner."
Impending snowfalls help too.
9 comments:
have you looked outside? snoooooooooooooooow!
I noticed! I do so love the snow. So pristine, so pure... I could wax poetic about snow now, but I think I'll pass.
... Though I sill say that snow looks best exactly NOW. It's pretty, and calming, and drifty, etc. etc. Then it settles into the ground and gets all black and dirty from the traffic and slushy was it melts and suddenly it's no longer as pretty and stuff.
I love that one day each year when it drops to like 35 degress and actually does rain and turn into solid ice overnight, here. It does smell nice though. I perfer the cold; but what can you do when you live in Hotlanta?
stay warm!
Being a Florida native, I didn't see snow until I was older, but I was always amazed at seeing snow first thing in the morning. Everything seemed so clean and eerily quiet. Driving in it, for me, was another thing altogether... I'm back in FLA.
This explains why people get used to cold. It's unbearable the first snowfall or two, and you wonder how you don't go out of your mind the rest of the season. Being a Canadian, I have to get used to fingers freezing off cold, but by January I can go outside with a T-shirt on and the flurries are ineffectual. I like that cool, attention-grabbing crispness.
sigh. that was dinky snow.
Sub -- I have to agree. I hope there's more to come. Just not in January, when I'm planning on flying. Unless it's on the way back, in which case getting snowed in isn't as bad.
THreshold: The word "threshold is derived from O.E. þrescold, þærscwold, þerxold "doorsill, point of entering," first element related to O.E. þrescan (see thresh), with its original sense of "tread, trample." Second element of unknown origin and much transformed in all the Gmc. languages; in Eng. it probably has been altered to conform to hold, but the oft-repeated story that the threshold was a barrier placed at the doorway to hold the chaff flooring in the room is mere folk etymology. Cognates include O.N. þreskjoldr, Swed. tröskel, O.H.G. driscufli, Ger. dial. drischaufel.
Dop: Uh... thanks? :)
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