* * *

This time last year, I had just returned from my trip to New Orleans. I only covered the first three days of the nine day jaunt in that chronicle, and now is a good time to bring up the next couple of days -- actually, the fourth day was spent recovering from the first three.

Last week, I lamented the lack of snow with Christmas approaching. Well, it's beginning to look a lot more like Christmas this week. It snowed Thursday night, and I -- having nothing else to do now that finals are done and I'm officially on semester break until mid-January -- even shoveled the walks on Friday. That was our first snowfall of the winter, and it reminded me of the snow storm that cleared the highway just south of Jackson, Mississippi last year, on the 14th of December, I believe it was.

On that day, Audy and Tab took me from New Orleans to their main residence in Monroe, Louisiana. The shortest route from New Orleans to Monroe takes you through Mississippi, and as we were heading north toward Jackson, it began to snow for the first time in more years than anyone could remember among those we talked to along the way. I've never seen so many people so excited about snow. The sides of the highway were lined with cars; pulled over, not because of hazardous driving conditions, but because everyone was out of their cars enjoying the three or four inches of the fluffy white stuff that had fallen in less than an hour; for many of them, it was the first time they'd seen that kind of packing snow - -perfect for snowballs and snowmen and angels, too. Kids and adults alike forgot about the unseasonably cold weather and the hustle bustle of daily life to throw snowballs at each other while it lasted.

Snowballs were flying and snowmen were popping up as fast as the snow could be rolled into body-parts. Tabatha built her first snowman and was so proud of her creation that she put the three-foot man of snow in the back of her El Camino so she could take it home with her. It's been a long time since I've seen anyone that happy to see snow.

I was riding with Audy in his truck and we followed Tab with her miniature snowman in the back, and in the two hours or so that it took to get home, like Frosty, her snowman had melted. I guess when it's that short-lived, you have much more appreciation for the beauty of winter.

I'm glad that we got snow in time for Christmas, but I'm hoping for an early spring. Now that I'm not working, I have no excuse not to shovel. Snow is great when rather than shoveling the sidewalks and driveways, and rather than plowing the roads, you simply wait for it to melt, but when it stays around for a few months, believe me, it gets old.