snow day! "guest" memory sentence 030513

My lifelong friend lives about 2 hours west of Chicago in beautiful midwestern country...here's what she wrote me this morning:

at 7 am, there is just the littlest bit of snow falling which is what the report keeps saying, the heavier snow is supposed to begin around 10 or so, but it is odd sitting here looking out the window at nothing changed from yesterday and have a snow day!   This is one of those times where they really do have to kind of make a call based on predictions as opposed to waking up to snow covered roads--I know we chatted about this, and as goofynasit is I guess I do appreciate the fact that its much easier for working parents in particular to make plans for their kids if they have some warning. Plus, as one who lives out of town so to speak, I appreciate not having to worry about driving through those few miles of wide open spaces that drift and hide the edges of the road and being flat farmland with no definition and nothing to block even the slightest wind, well, it's usually pretty much vast whiteness--beautiful yes, but not good for driving through--

Ok, so I'm sitting on my bed looking out my window this morning, watching for that first snowflake, enjoying for the first time in i don't know how long not having to immediately get going--it's quiet, still--I take a quick look at the weather on my iPad--takes maybe 20 seconds--I look up again out the window and there are 6 pheasants within 20 feet of me!  I don't know why I found that so funny, maybe because you would think they would have made some noise getting there, maybe because it was 6 of them--instant wildlife!  They hung around for awhile, then suddenly got all spooked out--the local stray cat!  Who is yellow and mangy but the only bright objection a cloudy black and white background--and funny to see it mosey through so oblivious while these birds hopped around and clucked furiously at it--so nutty!  And this after a night of being interrupted by weird noises outside--finally looked out and there were 2 deer maybe 3 feet from the window, their feet crunching through the snow was making the noise, plus they were kind of poking through the plants and bushes there, looking for lunch I suppose. A midnight lunch!! (Which is what nancy drew called their midnight snacks :) ) my wild kingdom tale for today

Big flakes now, beautiful!  And call me crazy, but there is something about thick falling snow that just feels luxurious -- a curious word in this context, I know!  But that's what it feels like to me, like being drenched in calm or something--all to say, I'm enjoying this!