A Lament for Snow

I’m back from Ithaca, having decided in one day’s worth of explorations that it would be a great place to live, except that you have to deal with winter there. Indeed, the Northeast and Upper Midwest are getting their last(?) wintry blast now; the counties to the north of Ithaca got hit by a major ice storm, leaving 300,000 people without power.

But I like the snow and ice. It’s fun to be out in the cold weather, and see the ice on trees, and to kick your way through the snow. To get to the Ithaca airport yesterday, I walked from the Ramada Inn, maybe 1 1/2 miles, with a few hints of snow flurries in the air. Quite pleasant.

The weather back home in Davis just isn’t very interesting. It snows once every fifteen years or so, there are no nor’easters, never much chance of severe thunderstorms, tornados, or baseball-sized hail. Perpetual sunshine for most of summer. I think I’m too much of a weather hound to be living in the Central Valley.

Still, today was the best of spring days here, clear and with the temperature in the 70s. The western kingbirds are back—Pica noticed them on Sunday—but the american pipits and white-crowned sparrows haven’t left yet.