The lighter side of winter

The first major snow of the year often elicits some collective grumbling in these parts, especially when it arrives in early December. As much as none of us likes having to drag winter gear out of the closet for the first time, extract the snow shovels from the corner of the garage where they’ve happily been gathering cobwebs over the past months, and be digging my car out of my driveway at 5:30 AM the past two days in a row, there are reminders of the lighter side of winter that pop up around here that almost make it worth it.

I’m giving Blakeley Hall the benefit of the doubt with that characterization, as this sight I encountered this morning could just as easily be a grisly caution from The Road or Mad Max. Knowing Blakeley denizens as I do, though, I’m confident it’s a vestige of our students having some fun in the snow yesterday, rather than a warning to those who would enter to abandon all hope. Blakeley houses a good chunk of our international students, and each year a handful of them experience their first-ever snowfall at Fletcher. Viewing a blizzard from their perspective makes it seem not so bad – fun, almost – even if their tastes are a bit Hannibal Lecter-ish. In any case, it’s great to see indications of folks enjoying winter, albeit at the expense of a defenseless snowman.