Thundersleet is My New Favorite Word by Bea Tifton

Last week, a much anticipated cold front swept into Texas.  The first day, there were a few wispy little snowflakes with no accumulation. I enjoyed  watching them blow around and the anticipated weather was the topic of the day on the news. The meteorologist predicted thunder sleet, which has to be one of the coolest weather terms I’ve heard.  (Ooh, I just realized. No pun intended.) I could hear the storm that night. The following day, I walked to the door with our dogs and the whole yard was covered in what I thought was snow. It was beautiful, clean and sparkling like glitter.  Our dogs had played happily played in the yard last time it snowed, so they rushed out in anticipation and kept right on going. This was ice, smooth as glass and twice as slick. With the exception of our new terrier pug, I watched as the dogs gamely slipped and slid about the yard doing their doggy business. Bentley, however, is a compliant, well behaved dog in every way but one; he absolutely refuses to get his feet wet. He hovered on the porch but declined to play and explore with the others. He kept staring at me with his soulful brown eyes as if trying to convince me to come to my senses and lead everyone inside.

The neighborhood was so peaceful. Not a car passed the entire day. During our marathon of Harry Potter movies, I texted a teacher friend of mine and congratulated her on her snow day, telling her not to dare doing anything school related all day.  A family of introverts, we were okay with staying in. We watched movies in our jim jams on and off all day. And so it went all week. Each day I thought, Tomorrow we’ll have to go back to being ridiculously busy, but each day we got a reprieve. The ice may have been treacherous, but it looked lovely. We didn’t have anywhere we needed to be, fortunately, and we had plenty of groceries, so we hibernated. I wore my favorite sweatshirt for five days in a row.  Poor little Bentley gave up and began peeing on the porch. I do feel sorry for the people who had to get out. I’m just so glad we didn’t. 

It’s nice to have an excuse to just stop. We watched movies, took naps, drank hot chocolate or tea, and read. I feel like I caught up on my sleep and decompressed.  That’s a luxury I didn’t take for granted. Many people are complaining about the cold and wishing for spring, but I have to confess. I’d be okay with one or two more ice days. Maybe I’ll get Bentley some snow boots.

Photo Credit: 

Taryn Elliott "A Person Wearing Gray Socks"