November 12, 2002
The cold came earlier than expected this year. Even the Farmer’s Almanac missed this one, calling for above normal temperatures; a mild and rainy first week of November. After my complaints of last year and my reckless rantings to the snow gods, this year I will shut up. I am content. And I have garnered a new-found respect for what the frozen-turf deities can accomplish by election day.
As I stood on the front porch this morning watching the snow fall, I noticed a snowflake just to my right that wasn’t moving. It was just hanging there in empty space. It was a huge, fluff-flake, the kind where you can see space in-between the snow crystals, and it had distinct parts like a mechanical model of a molecule in high school science class. I slowly reached above it about 4 inches, pinched my fingers into thin air and moved to the side. The snowflake followed. It hung below my hand like a delicate pendant. I moved again and the invisible force moved the snowflake as well. It was weightless and silent, defiant of its fellow snowflakes that let inertia and gravity have its way. As simple wonder abdicated to practical scrutiny; I could see that the snowflake had been snagged on a spider’s web-strand hanging from the edge of the roof. I spotted 4 or 5 others, and as I walked in the woods I noticed more of these snow pendants hanging like nature’s jewelry. It may be awhile before I see this phenomena again, but I can damn well say I saw it. I will keep an eye out for more of these aberrant snowflakes, waiting to see what the mischievous snow gods come up with next…