It's a Four-Letter Word!

So, it's officially Spring, and I awake to snow flakes in the air, the furnace running (oh goodie, Maudie LOVES to pay the heating bill!), and a foggy dreary day. Snow? Really? Come one Mother Nature! Don't make me call you what I'd like to call you today! ;-)

This crappy weather makes me think of something I heard the other evening.

While having dinner, recently, at a local restaurant, I overheard part of a conversation taking place among several people seated at the table next to mine. I honestly wasn't trying to listen in. Honest! I wouldn't have paid any attention to what they were saying, at all, except for the fact that they kept saying a certain four-letter-word!

Over and over, that word kept popping up in their conversation, and over and over I kept cringing and wishing they'd just stop saying it! I wanted to scream at them, "For the love of potato chips (and Maudie loves her potato chips!), would you stop saying that word? You're making me sick!"

You know what four-letter-word I'm referring to, don't you?

Dare I print it here?

Aw shoot, why not!

S-N-O-W!

Sitting here on the blog, all alone, that word looks pretty harmless, doesn't it?  But put it into the right kind of sentence and, for many of us, it's one of the nastiest four-letter-words in the English language. Don't believe me? Then try this little experiment the next time you're with a group of people.
Smile, and say, I think snow is really pretty."
Wait for the reaction.
Then....try this:
Smile the very same way and say, "I heard it's going to snow here tonight."
You will now have everyone's full attention. I guarantee it!
Finally, smile the very same way and say, "They're calling for a foot of snow tonight."
You won't have anyone's attention now. That'll be due to the fact that everyone you were talking to is either running for their car or to the nearest TV to check out the Weather Channel.

S-N-O-W!

That four-letter-word is also one of the most powerful words in the English language.
It has the power to snarl traffic, as folks try to get home before they see snow. It has the power to create long lines at gas station pumps. It has the power to cause women, who love to wear pretty shoes, to don truly ugly boots and even uglier coats...just to cope with snow. It has the power to close schools, slow business and create chaos! It has the power to make us watch the Weather Channel.....all day!

That four-letter-word even has the incredible power to compel us to rush, like maniacs, to the nearest store, desperate to buy the three all-important, life-saving items that must be stock-piled in everyone's home before we get snow:
bread, milk and toilet paper!
Miss Maudie also adds wine to that life-sustaining list folks!

Even if you don't need bread, milk or toilet paper, when you hear that four-letter-word, like lemmings following each other into the sea, we rush to buy more...."just in case."

S-N-O-W!

It's a four-letter-word that I don't mind hearing if I can stay safe and snug inside my home and have lots of baking supplies....along with enough milk, bread and that all-important toilet paper to sustain the entire neighborhood for a week! It's a word that makes me crave a bowl of chili.

S-N-O-W!

It's a four-letter-word that brings joy and happiness to children. They love to hear that word. It means the possibility of a day off from school. It causes them to converge on treeless hillsides with sleds. It gives birth to battles and skirmishes fought by giggling troops, armed with harmless ammunition that will, eventually, melt away. It makes them run around outside trying to catch snowflakes on their tongues. It allows them to spend special hours making fun snowmen with their parents!

S-N-O-W!

Hmm....maybe kids have the right idea about that four-letter-word!

S-N-O-W!

Maybe the next time we hear it mentioned, we can take a cue from kids and think about all the things we like about it?
Maybe I'll take a turn or two on a sled?
Maybe I'll join in a snowball battle?
Maybe I'll run around in a parking lot, trying to catch a snowflake on my tongue?
Um....maybe not!
I just imagined a parking lot full of adults, all trying to do that.

I think I'll just be content with a long walk in the evening snow, a hot bowl of chili, a snuggle by a cracking fire with a good book, a glass of wine, ...and the comforting knowledge that I have a closet full of toilet paper.   ;-)