How dreadful

November 18th in Maryland, and it's cold. So cold, in fact, that the Weather Channel is calling for the possibility of snow around lunch time today. This would, if it were to actually happen, be our first snow of the year.

Once upon a time, this notion would have excited me. I would have eagerly watched the news, my eyes greedily tracking the churning white images moving across the map of the Mid-Atlantic region. Dreams of waking to a field of unsullied white, the icicles dangling from the roof sparkling like a crystal chandelier in the early morning light, would have ratcheted up my pulse to roller coaster-worthy heights.

Not so much anymore. My reaction has, sadly turned cynical. Though I see the beauty of the snowfall, and appreciate the hush that seems to fall over the world with each frozen flake that falls from the sky, mostly, I just dread it now.

It's no longer the weather that I always felt tied me to my home state (because Montana does have rather the reputation for snowfall). Now it's the bane of my work week, an added hazard on an already perilous commute (damned aggressive Maryland drivers), and just plain cold.

Perhaps my love affair with snow died it's slushy death that first year of law school, when I trekked all the way into Baltimore, just to have my classes cancelled, and then, many hours later when I could finally catch a train home, I fell knee deep into a pothole that was deceptively deeper than it appeared due to the icy cold and filthy runoff from the melted snow that filled it.

Maybe the final death knell was last year, when I slid off the road a mere 1/4 mile from my house, going 2 miles per hour and got my car stuck in a ridiculously shallow ditch for the better part of an hour.

Or maybe it's that regardless of weather, I still have to come in to the office.

Whatever the reason, I'm wishing this little snow storm north to Pennsylvania. Let them deal with it.