Watching Snowfall...Slowed Down

I live in a mountains and that means we get late winter storms. This morning we woke up to snow, not bad, but snow nonetheless.

I have so many friends who hate snow. Some would love to never have it snow here again. Some love snow in December--just in time for Christmas--but would love it if it never snowed after Christmas. I reject both those opinions. Without the snow those sun-worshipers wouldn't have places to go waterskiing in the winter, or have water to drink...you know, simple things like that.

This morning I decided to take out the phone and video the big beautiful flakes falling to earth. They turned out pretty cool. I posted a video of one of the slow-motion videos here. It made me think about how people love water. People go to the ocean to be at one with nature, or to the edge of a lake and let the water heal them mentally. For me, snow does the same thing. watching it fall, seeing it blanket the world around me. It's relaxing--especially if I don't have to drive in it.

Riding The Rails On A Foul-Weathered Day...

When the biggest snowstorm in two years hits, you adjust your schedule. Today I took the train.

I'm lucky enough to have options when it comes to my daily commute. I can drive or I can take public transportation. And my public transportation options are two fold--I can take any number of buses or the ultramodern Frontrunner train. On bad weather days--like today--I take the train.

It took about an hour to get to work today. When the weather's not bad, I take an express bus and the commute's usually thirty-five minutes each way. If I take the train when the weather's good, it takes about about forty-five minutes for me to get to work. Today my commute took an hour, which is pretty good considering the conditions.

There was one funny experience I had this morning. At the station before we reached downtown, the train stopped and several people climbed aboard. This is not unusual because people using public transportation on bad weather days increases. Several people sat down near to where I was. They began relating to us how their morning commute was going. The had just stepped off a train that was parked at the other platform. It was the train headed to Salt Lake City that left an hour before our train. They had waited for 30 minutes the first time, then 45 minutes at the station where we had just stopped. The weather was causing havoc on the train systems, too.

As they were telling us this, a few younger riders on our train announced they were taking the train parked at the other platform because it was leaving first. A few moments later, the other train left the station bound for Salt Lake. If I was one of those passengers who got up early and caught the early train only to sit and wait over an hour for it to move and then saw that same train leave without me, I would have been a little mad. Fortunately, our train left a few minutes after so it wasn't a big deal.

It's supposed to show all night an much of the day tomorrow. I think I'll be riding the rails once again.