Accepting the Almanac

I can't tell you how much I've heard it since January: "the Almanac says" "the Almanac says" ... apparently the Almanac says we would get a good snow On the 20th of February. Does the 19th count?

Last year was my first year teaching. I teach way down in the mountains of Southwest Virginia. We missed 17 days of school last year due to snow. It wasn't as awesome as it sounds because I personally get bored with too many days off. Fortunately I have my wonderful Food Lion job as well, so on my days off from school I sometimes just went in to work at the deli. (I live 40 minutes north of where I teach so while they had snow days in the mountains, my town was perfectly fine.)


This year, however, we have had one. Boy is everyone feeling it - the germs don't leave the building and January was a very long month. And still, everyone keeps saying, "the Almanac says we are getting a big snow storm between the 20th and 23rd of February." Well, today is the 19th and we are covered. 

Looking onto Lane Stadium, picture from Virginia Tech Athletics  

Originally it was supposed to start early this morning, but it didn't. I got to work around 10 and it was snowing/raining on and off but nothing much was happening. Then it picked up and died off throughout the day. It started sticking in the grass around 12 or so and started to quickly accumulate. At almost exactly 4 o'clock (that's when I left), it started sticking on the roads. During my 15 minute drive home, about an inch and a half built up on the roads and I slipped and slid up the hills that lead to my house. Oh, so much fun! I love to just slip around like that and often do it on purpose. Reminds me of the old days as a kid when we would go out "sliding in the black truck." Within the hour, we became covered. A tree behind our house started to come down - so hopefully it stays outside our house! It looks like this from my back porch, and
you can see the tree on the left on an obvious angle:

I just love the snow. I think it's so magical. When my store manager told me it was really coming down, I couldn't help but to just go stand outside for a few seconds. It makes my heart smile as the world is clean and bright. It was flurrying last weekend and I created the line "Just like the tiny snowflakes that fall around us, it is the small, intricate details that make you so special." I feel like I should turn that into a speech or poem or something. I don't know what it is about the snow, but it really puts me in that kind of a mood. How do you feel about the snow? Do you hate it because it's cold and you can't go run errands or are you happy to enjoy time inside, curling up on the couch (maybe with a fire? some hot cocoa? a loved one?) and being forced to slow down a little bit?

Also, does this count as the almanac being right?