This Weekend on the Bayou

Well! It's the earliest we've ever seen snow in this part of the country. Last year was the earliest on December 11th. Quel surprise! But December 5th, man!

I remember one year the temperatures were in the low teens on December 7, catfish were freezing in the catfish ponds and no one knew what to do. The workers started seining them up and giving them away by the forty-eight quart chest. We got a lot of free catfish put up but then LSU called the owner of the catfish pond and said, ' they'll thaw out and live' so that came to a halt. Catfish are easily stressed though so many of them died anyway.

Who knows we may have a few snowmen on the mail route this weekend. I took a picture of one last year but I can't find it. Let's just say it didn't look like this one.



Most of the snow is supposed to happen late this evening and tonight so hopefully they'll get the Mississippi River bridge sanded so we can get across to deliver mail. I'd love it if there's snow - SNOW! - everywhere except on the street. Hey, we like our extraordinary weather gifts with a dose of convenience. Who doesn't?

The Postal Carrier's Motto

Neither snow, nor rain, nor heat, nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds. ... the motto of the U.S. postal carrier never hit home like it did this morning.

My hubby called to me to come see around 5:20 this morning. He said, "It's snowing."

I thought sure, maybe a speck of snow among the thousands of raindrops. But I was surprised by a near blizzard of inch sized snow flakes falling heavy and wet. Driving to work in the dark was like being on the Enterprise, speeding through the stars in warp drive. When I crossed the bridge to Natchez the lights caught the heavy snow blowing straight down the Mississippi.

Everyone was excited as children. People who grow up with snow take the experience for granted. One of my coworkers called her mother and said, wake everybody up, it's snowing. Grown men called their wives with 'Honey, it's snowing', and walked around the post office calling out, 'it's getting heavier!'

On the receiving dock a young man of about 25 stood in awe of the floating, flying white stuff. I was taking a picture and he said, "I've only seen snow once before in Dallas. It's beautiful."

On my route there was a man, his little girl, and their dog having a snowball fight, running, laughing. She probably wasn't born the last time we had snow.

Some snow optimists didn't let the small amount of snow deter them from building snowmen.



It was a rare and unexpected gift.