Snow #3

One of the things I remember about Boulder is that the weather always gets nasty around Halloween. It's not at all uncommon to have snow on that day, but it's more usual to have the weather just be BAD -- cold, wet, windy. It's not always that way, of course. Our last Halloween in Boulder, 2008, was hot and sunny. But usually it's pretty bad.

This year the bad weather started early, on Monday. Yesterday, Tuesday, it was wet and cold and gloomy all day, just drizzling rain in an unpleasant sort of way. Last night it was predicted that the drizzle would turn to snow, and in the middle of the night, the weirdest thing happened. We had thundersnow. Rocket Boy and I were actually awakened by the thunder, it was so loud. And there was a strange quality to the sound, sort of muffled, not like normal thunder. I was scared, frankly. Such a peculiar, unfamiliar noise. I worried that the twins would wake up, but they didn't. We heard three separate claps of thundersnow, and then it took me a long time to fall asleep again.

In the morning, sure enough, there was snow on the ground, but not a lot. I went out to get the paper, turned to the east, and what did I see but

three deer over at our neighbor's house. I ran for my camera, but couldn't get very good shots. Here they are crossing the street:

It was two adult deer and a fawn, but the fawn had an injured leg. I wanted to call someone about it, but the deer were gone so quickly. That fawn's not going to make it, though.

We had a cold, icy walk to school.

Thundersnow is associated with large amounts of snow, but you can see we only got a dusting. It was very icy, so it probably rained ice before it turned to snow. Thunderice? Baby B slipped and fell twice on the way to school, and I would have too, except that I walked very very slowly, like a little old lady. He also stepped in a puddle and got one shoe all wet. Boos need boots! Must work on that!

It's supposed to get to 50 today, so the snow will all melt, and tomorrow, Halloween, is supposed to be sunny and 52. But winds up to 30 mph are predicted. Trick-or-treating should be exciting, with fallen leaves whipping around us.

We'll carve the pumpkins tonight.