waiting for the...

That's what I call it when one day you're looking at the leafless trees of early Spring, and then...suddenly...without warning...FOOMP! Every leaf in the Northern Hemisphere says "HERE I AM!", and the trees are magically transformed to greeny goodness.

It's unpredictable. No one knows exactly when it'll happen, but everyone does the "when-the-hell-did-that-happen?" double take when it does. It usually happens when you least expect it, and definitely when you aren't looking... hence the WTHDTH look.

For us, it's happened coming home from the annual Spring trip to my brother-in-law's in Boston, or on the way home from a Lions Club state convention. I think one time it happened on our way home from South Carolina... which was pretty cool given the whole distance and climate change.

Well, I welcome the FOOMP!, as it's the sure way to know that Spring is just teasing us.

it's snowing... EVERYBODY PANIC!!!

Yup, it's a "major storm" here for us. The weather guys were all talking about 12-24" of snow falling in a 24-hour period. So far, we've had a few inches, a bit of light freezing rain, and now some lake-effect snow is falling.

"It's going to snow" is all the local meteorologists had to say to trigger what I call a "French Toast Alert"... meaning to tell everyone to hit the grocery stores for all the bread, milk and eggs they can carry. I came up with the term when we lived in South Carolina, because without fail, these were the first items snatched up when ever the "weather panic" struck.

Of course, the weather panic usually meant a "possible inch of snow", but mostly meant freezing rain. Where they basically don't have snow removal equipment (or very little), this will shut the state down.

The snow is coming down steadier now. Who knows....maybe we'll get what they predicted, and those weather guys can maintain their safe 65% job accuracy ratings...

UPDATE: It's 11:36PM, and at last glance it was still coming down. I was out around 9PM clearing the driveway, and finding the cars, in an attempt to lessen the chance of having the clear it again before I leave for work in the morning. Good freakin' luck.