Despite This We Stay for February 21st, 2013

by Carol Dunn
HUERFANO— ­I know, I know, we’ve been praying for moisture. And if you’ve lived here any length of time, you know the weather is unpredictable. You know that a 20% chance of precipitation means FOR SURE it will snow, and a 90% chance means the sun will probably shine all day, especially on your house, especially if it’s drier than a popcorn tart.
So why am I surprised when the chance of snow is zero and it snows? Am I just a slow learner? There may be no snow in the forecast for the next twenty days, but there it is – snowing. And I try not to be surprised when the 1-3” of snow the highly educated weatherman forecasts actually dumps a foot on us. He has all kinds of maps that show the Jet Stream and the average temperatures for the past thousand years and what the weather will be like in Papua today. But he didn’t know it would snow in Huerfano County, 30 miles away?
Don’t get me wrong; we LOVE the snow. Ok, we TRY to love it. We try VERY VERY hard to love it. Most of us do anyway. After all, we have to be loyal to our ranchers and the people who raise hay and the people who have pretty flowers in their yard, even though we’re not one of them and only weeds grow in our yard.
And since we LOVE the snow, common sense would tell you that we will be all ready for the next snowfall. Because it’s bound to happen sooner or later – sooner if you leave your best power tools sitting out overnight. But in reality we will be as ready for the next surprise snowfall as we are ready for an adobe bug to crawl out of our underwear.
The snow shovel is stuffed away in a shed somewhere under a pile of chicken wire. The winter gloves and winter coats are stored in a dark closet in the basement where you refuse to look because there might be a black-widow spider in there. (Hey, even guys are afraid of black widows.) Your fur-lined boots are somewhere that you put them so you would remember where they are next time they forecast snow. WHAAAT? It didn’t seem like it was going to snow anymore!
So there you are doing chores barehanded in sandals and a hoodie during the surprise snowstorm, which last year you swore you would be ready for this year. You might as well dig that winter stuff out now and … oh wait. It’s snowing right now. Never mind.