Dear Winter, I want snow.

A few weeks ago, James wrote an open letter to winter. He told Winter that he hates it for all kinds of reasons: the power goes out, he missed some of The Office, because his family is stuck home most of the time.

I’m writing an open letter to Winter today with a different message: I want snow. Perhaps you could speak to your Cloud Battalions and send them my way. You see, where I’m at, there are two types of winter. One is the pretty kind: lots of white snow, perhaps some ice on the trees and hills. It’s really quite pleasant. It looks something like this:

Photo by dmushrush

The other kind is.. well, yucky. Lots and lots of rain. Lots and lots of cloudy weather. Lots and lots of mud. It looks a bit like this:

Now, the main difference between those pictures is, of course, temperature. If it’s cold enough you get the former. If it’s not cold enough, you get the latter. I also realize that eventually, I’ll end up with the latter. Even if it does snow, when spring comes, things will melt and be a bit muddy for a while. But really - if I’m going to have to deal with the overcast skies and muddy roadways, at least give me some pretty snow for a while. Make it worth my while. Have your Temperature Commanders turn things down a bit, please. I want to see pretty snowflakes falling, please!

Oh, and by the way, I haven’t lost my mind. Cloud Battallions? Temperature Commanders? Let me explain in brief: I’ve been reading The Fall of Berlin 1945 by Antony Beevor. The terminology is apparently seeping into my head. (And anyway, Cloud Battallions and Temperature Commanders sound kind of cool. They’d go wonderfully with the warring gods of winter and spring.)