The First Snow!

We took Elizabeth out to the school bus this morning at 7:45 in the pitch black.  The sidewalk glistened more than normal and I could see that it was raining.  “Bummer!” I thought.  Then I looked up at the school bus and saw a layer of snow on the roof.  Instinctually, I ran over to the bus, swiped a large bunch of wet snow off, tucked it into a snowball, and turned around and beaned Elizabeth in the shoulder with it.  It was a perfect hit and snow sprayed everywhere.  Elizabeth was thrilled!  The bus driver looked at me like I was insane.  I told her that snow doesn’t exist in San Diego.  Then she nodded like she understood while Elizabeth climbed into the bus, covered in snow, with a giant smile on her face.

The weather.  It’s not too much of a conversation piece in San Diego, but we still use it in small talk.  If it rains, it is certainly the talk of the town.  But in climates where there is bad weather, it is not only a topic of small talk, but a topic of all talk.  When I call home to Boston it is always on top of the list.  Here in Paris, it is similar.  Rightly so.  First of all, there is often a lot of variety in the weather in just one day.  It can go from blisteringly cold, windy and rainy to warm and sunny and back to cold and maybe some rain again within mere hours.  It’s usually warmest late in the afternoon, like 4-5, not at midday.  Frankly, that is not so important at this time of year, as it may go from 39 degrees to 42 degrees.  Tomorrow’s high is forecasted to be 34 degrees.

I can deal with cold temperatures.  I’ve got a system down.  In fact, I ordered two pairs of ski socks from Amazon France and they arrived this week.  I wear them inside my fur lined snow boots with pants, an undershirt, turtleneck, sweater and scarf.  Then I put on my long down parka that reaches almost to the top of my boots.  I wrap another—wool—scarf around my neck, put on a fur lined hat that covers my ears, and gloves.  I bring an umbrella in my purse and I’m ready for anything. 

The part that is hard to deal with is the grey.  It is so dark out during the day here that you can’t tell if it is day or night.  Seriously.  They keep the Christmas lights on all day long here and you can see them because it is so dark out.  The other day, we walked out of a café after lunch and it was so dark out I had to question whether we had stayed for hours longer than I had realized.  I looked down at my watch and it was 2:00 in the afternoon.  It looked like dusk.  Not that dusk is that much later.  I watch the sun rise between 8:30 and 9:00 in the morning.  Sunset sometimes starts at 3:00 in the afternoon.  I say “sometimes” because that is only when you can see pink in the sky.  Usually it just goes from grey to black sometime between 4:00-5:00.  All of this darkness sure does give reason for Paris to be the City of Lights.