A Winter's Tale

I have spent my whole life in New Mexico, so I don't truly know winter. I grew up in the Northern part of the state--the part that actually gets snow and has ski hills and outdoor ice skating rinks. We often experienced snowstorms that left multiple feet of snow on the ground, and we would wait for my Dad to finish shoveling the driveway, so we could build caves and forts in the snow piled there. We would head to the school and sled down the steep hills, right into the street! Once I moved to Albuquerque, though, snow was much more unusual. Most of my neighbors don't even own snow shovels because the snow usually melts within a couple of hours. My kids have never built a proper snowman because when there is only two inches of snow on the ground, you can't do much with it. One year we built a "snow alligator" instead. We broke off the tips of icicles to use as claws and teeth! Because it doesn't snow often here, the city is ill-equipped to deal with a major snowfall. Only the main roads and highways get plowed and sanded, the side streets are never cleared. Ice is more of a problem than the snow. Two inches of snow can cause school cancellations around here because the buses can't get to their stops. Since it is never cold enough for the snow to really "stick," it starts to melt right away, but then freezes at night. We always hope for the snow to fall in the morning, so it will be gone by the afternoon!

Two years ago, we got 18 inches of snow just after New Year's. It was the most snow Albuquerque had received in 56 years! It shut down the highways and brought everything to a grinding halt! I was glad the snow came on Friday afternoon because I didn't have to drive anywhere! I had to shake the snow off of my trees and bushes to keep the branches from breaking (trees and bushes here are very spindly because they are usually drought-tolerant species). My neighbor came out and offered to help me shovel my driveway. I just laughed and told him I grew up in the Jemez Mountains, so 18 inches was nothin'! Two days later, I had to go to the grocery store, and the parking lot was a slushy mess--it was never plowed, so cars driving through just packed down the snow, and it would start to melt and then re-freeze. People were sliding all over the place! Because the interstates had been shut down for days, trucks couldn't make their deliveries, so the shelves were bare. They were out of potatoes, bread, and even milk! I was disappointed because my kids were spending that week of their Winter Break with their dad, and I had so wanted to play in the snow with them, the way I remembered doing as a kid! My neighbors drove up and down our street, pulling their kids on sleds attached to the bumper of their SUV with ropes!

Winter here is pretty mild, as are all of our seasons. It generally stays in the high 40s and 50s by day, and rarely gets below 20 or 30 degrees at night. Because we are at a high elevation (5,200 feet), we get our share of freakish storms. The year we made the snow alligator, the snow had come in April, and the week before it had been 70 degrees! Three years ago we had a bitter cold snap that lasted several days, and it actually got down to 10 below! Of course, that was the night I got a flat tire driving home after midnight. I had to call for Roadside Assistance and, thankfully, the guy was really fast at changing tires! (I had to wait 45 minutes for him to show up, though.)

I don't like the starkness of winter. We have sunny days throughout the season, but the trees all look so barren without their leaves. With our desert climate, there is already so little green in our landscaping, that I hate to lose any of it! I do like the coziness winter brings, though. We eat soup and grilled cheese sandwiches a lot, and I make hot chocolate from scratch while we watch movies on the weekends. I love to watch the snow fall when it does appear. There is something inherently magical about falling snow--but only when you are inside with plenty of heat and comfort food! So, I guess Albuquerque has the best of both worlds--we get to enjoy snow once in awhile, but it doesn't usually stick around long enough to be a problem, and our coldest temperatures are gone by March!