Houston's mystery snowfall explained.
Last
Wednesday, Santa brought an early Christmas present to town. It snowed. At
exactly 6:02 pm I stepped out of my office building into cold and wonderfully
brisk air filled with big ole honkin Colorado-style snowflakes that gently fell
onto everything in sight. You'll laugh, but it warmed my heart and added to the
holiday spirit that already has me in its grip.
Oh sure, Tim
Heller said it was moist air feeding in from the Gulf over a blue northern that
froze yada yada yada. But you see he's part of the international conspiracy to
hide the true secret of snow in Houston. It only snows here when Santa is
checking his list. That's right. He does periodic flights to make sure he has
all his addresses right for the little boys and little girls all over town.
After all, people do move, so he has to make sure everything is right for
Christmas Eve. And the snow is camouflage to hide his mission.
Santa did one
flyby at our house when we first moved in about 7-years ago. He came in so low
he wiped out all the decorations in the front yard, sending one of the lighted
reindeer under my car.
Of course you're
asking how I know this? Well, I'm a cubmaster for cub scouts and every one of
us is given the hotline to the North
Pole. That's right. We take an oath to help Santa keep his Naughty or Nice list
up to date.
Now the added
benefit of this particular recon mission is that my 7-year old got a chance at
playing in the snow. He was about 4 during the last Santa flyby and was too
sick to join his older brothers out playing. Of course I casually mentioned
that to Santa during one of my reports.
Rounding the
corner onto my block, a half-dozen boys frolicked and played under the
streetlight by our house. Getting closer, it was obvious they were trying to
catch snowflakes on their tongues. The most spirited of the bunch was my little
one – smiling and jumping up and down with excitement.
All the boys
chased my car up the driveway. I barely opened the car door before they grilled
me about the possibility of school being cancelled because of a snow day or
ice.
None of the snow
accumulated, but it reminded me of one of the snows back around 1973. Several
inches built up during that storm and our front yard had enough for my friend,
Billy Caldwell, and me to build a snowman. He was more of an expert because his
family was from the north. Not Dallas, I mean the real north. He was a Yankee.
I seem to remember
he had a sled and we pulled each other back and forth on the lawn and the
sidewalk that had iced over. We spent hours outside until Mom made us come in
to warm up. She had hot chocolate ready for us and Dad had a fire roaring in
the fireplace (real wood!). We actually hung our wet stuff by the fire to dry.
Was Santa doing a
flyby then? I think so because there were funny marks in the snow that built up
on the roof—almost like the blades of a sleigh. That also happen to be a
really great Christmas that year.
So when it snows
in Houston, you can bet that Santa has already made his list but is checking it
twice – he has to get it right cuz he's only got one night to make his
global flight. So be good for goodness sake and stay on the Nice list!
Merry Christmas.
Copyright 2008 by David Falloure
