The 2009 Parade of Snowmen

It happened. It actually happened. The weatherman predicted snow on Friday and . . . it actually snowed. I was certain that with all the hype that this would be just another trumped up weather story meant to get everybody all stirred up over nothing. When they predicted that one to two inches of snow was "probable" and that two to four inches was "possible" I figured that if was probable that it was possible that we might have light flurries for about fifteen minutes. But, for a change what Gene Norman said would happen, happened. It started snowing in Greatwood at about 7:30 in the morning and it didn't stop until 4:00 in the afternoon. It started off mixed with rain but it wasn't long before snowflakes the size of dessert plates were falling at the rate of about three million flakes per second. It was such a winter wonderland that I expected Bing Crosby and Rosemary Clooney to step out from behind a bush at any second and start singing White Christmas.


Because it was supposed to start freezing in the early afternoon the schools all let out early, which meant that every kid in the neighborhood was soon busy rolling out their first snowman. I noticed one across the street so I decided to drive around and check out the burgeoning snowman population. There were kids and snowmen everywhere. A few of the local white guys are shown below.



The hoodlums in the above picture posed after they bombarded my car with snowballs. I was going to complain to their parents until I noticed several parents were participants in the attack. I then looked for grandparents, but I couldn't find any, so we made a truce and I took everyone's picture.


More participants in the Greatwood Parade of Snowmen - 2009.

Just in case you can't tell, this one is actually a "snow bunny" as I was informed by the eight year old artist who created it.

In non-snow related news I am continuing with my wounded knee rehabilitation. The rehab exercises are getting harder and harder, but at the same time my knee is getting stronger and stronger. I'd say right now that it's about 95% back to normal, but I plan to continue to stay serious about my rehab because I want to make sure that I'm ready for Costa Rica at the end of this month.

Speaking of this month, my birthday was this past Thursday. I am know officially 57 years old, which I must admit is really kind of old. When turned 40 I convinced myself that 40 wasn't all that old. I did the same thing when I turned 50. But 57! Whoa! I realize that it's time to stop kidding myself. I guess it beats the alternative. For my birthday Vicki took me out to a gourmet breakfast at Bob's Taco Station (she drove). During breakfast she presented me with a Bob's Taco Station T-shirt. She said it was a special limited edition. I can't wait to wear it.

Bethany and Cody came to town on Saturday afternoon for a short visit (they left this afternoon). Bethany came for a Christmas party with some of her college girlfriends and Cody came along for the ride. We all went to church together this morning, then out to lunch for some Chinese food. I was then absent for most of the afternoon due to rehearsal for the FCCC Christmas extravaganza, which we call Winter's Eve. I'll give you some more interesting details about that in a future post.