It's December, time for the snow to start flying, and in fact, this weekend lake-effect snowstorms have been hitting the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and towns along Lake Erie and Lake Ontario, with Watertown, New York expecting 4 to 6 feet. In Buffalo, they are expecting 2 feet of snow, and the Buffalo Bills are asking fans to help shovel out Highmark Stadium before tonight's Bills game with the San Francisco 49ers. In Colorado, they have had a lot of snow in the mountains, but not much in Denver as of yet. Here in Stuart, Florida, we don't expect a white Christmas. In fact, over the past 48 years, I am aware of snow flurries around here exactly twice - once on our dog Irma when my mother Mary brought her inside after a walk, and once when I was down visiting my mother in December. And, of course, both times those flurries melted as soon as they hit the ground. When I was a kid, I used to love when it snowed, especially when it snowed so much that school was canceled. I took the photograph above out the window of my bedroom back in 1962 when we lived in the South Side Brainerd neighborhood of Chicago. The older I got, however, the less I liked the snow, especially when I had to drive in it. Back when I lived in a studio apartment in Forest Park, just to the west of Chicago, I remember one year there was so much snow on the sides of the road it was like driving through a canyon. You had to park your car in the thankfully plowed schoolyard each night and walk home. I suspect there is little chance of that happening here this year.
