I wake up almost every morning in a good mood. Life can be stressful, bad things can be happening, whatever it is, but I wake up just fine. I go to sleep thinking and I wake up thinking. A lot of the time if I fall asleep mulling over an issue, I find I have resolved it by morning. Often, I will wake up in the wee hours with someone on my mind and I will pray for them right then. Then, at peace, I will go back to sleep. Sometimes I don't sleep well, but I still wake up in a good mood. Another day with Jesus here on this planet! I really can't explain it. In a year's time I will wake up in a sour maybe five or six times.

I woke up this morning at 4AM in a bad mood.

My eyes opened and I was instantly awake. I knew it would be a grouchy day and, what was worse, I didn't care. I was meeting at 10AM with a group of folks in the faclity and I knew I was going to be difficult. I would be on the phone later and I knew I would be snarly. I didn't care. I was not in a mood to be trifled with.

I had no idea why I felt as I did, and that bothered me. But again, I DID NOT CARE!

And then I heard it and I understood. I didn't swear. That would indicate a nuclear holocast. But my mood was such that if I had thought to swear, I might actually have done so. The SOUND! I hate the SOUND! I don't always hate the sound. March or April...I can live with it. But not this morning!

At 4AM this morning, sleet was peppering my window.

Just to make it clear, sleet and hail are two separate things. Both are frozen precipitation, but hail is formed in a thunderstorm. The thunderstorm, usually in the summer, is caused when cooler air and hot air run into each other. The resulting storm causes updrafts which will catch falling rain and drive it back to great altitudes, where it starts to freeze. Then it falls, only to be lifted high again. The size of the hail when it finally hits the ground indicates how many times it went through this uplifting experience. Tornados usually produce a lot of hail on the other side of the tornado. (Yes, I know. I am a weather nerd. Proud of it, too.) Sleet, on the other hand, is caused when rain falls and the drop freezes before it hits the ground. No uplift. Just air so cold it freezes the rain. When you see hail, get to a safe place. When you see sleet, you are doomed. Snow is coming.

I grew up in snow country. I lived in snow country as an adult. You deal with it. Depending on your age, you might even like it. I also lived in Indiana where a six inch snow fall shut everything down and I lived in Florida where the natives would make trips north just to see snow. But where I live now, where I grew up and where I spent most of my adult/ministry, it seriously snows. 

Everyone here has their own snow story. For the youth, and even the young adults, the story involves laughter. Sledding, snowball fights, snowmen, ice skating. Fun stuff. But when you hit 35, the stories turn. Sledding is when you lose control on the interstate and you sled into a guard rail. A snowball fight is when some overhead branch releases a load of snow that falls down the back of your jacket while you are shoveling the most recent foot of snow from your driveway. The snowman is actually you when you come in after shoveling that foot of new snow that wasn't there that morning. And ice skating usually involves falling on your backside and sliding down the driveway while you try to maintain control of two bags of groceries.

Around here, people in their forties and fifties can often be heard to say, "I love snow until Christmas is over." To which I snort in disgust. Snow is never, ever welcome at my door. It makes me grouchy. I am truly a Grinch.

That is not to say it is all bad. The other morning I went to the car early to go get my groceries. I was in shirt sleeves, short sleeves at that (the cold doesn't faze me, just snow), and I encountered a smallish figure who was so covered in coats and gloves and scarves and hats that I couldn't see the face. However, the dog gave her away. The dog, Blaze, was enjoying the cold temps and wind. Blaze almost pulled his owner over to get to me because he really likes me. I gave him the required head and belly rubs and then turned to Sandy, his owner. "Sandra, are you in there?" "Pastor! You are going to catch your death dressed like that!" Sandy and Blaze moved here in July to be near her son who was transferred here. Sandy has never lived anywhere except Dallas, Texas. Blaze will love it, but Sandy is going to be fun to watch. She goes to our worship service and I am pretty sure she will be the first to want to pray that it warms up.

But is that enough to make me happy to hear sleet on my window? Not at all. 

At one point, years ago, Marsha and I lived about 200 yards from Lake Erie. One evening we sat watching the news. We sat there, each with our own blanket and sipping on coffee or cocoa, and the program came to the weather. I was interested in this because I worked at the funeral home and I had a funeral in the morning. The weather presenter told us that if it all set up just right, we could have up to a foot and a half of snow by morning. She went on to say that near the Lake it could be substantially more. Marsha said, "Well, that won't happen. This lady always makes it sound worse than it is." To which I agreed, but I decided to get up extra early to clear the driveway if necessary. So, I got up at 3:30 and walked to the kitchen to look out. I couldn't see my mailbox or any other mailbox on the street. They weren't covered by the snowplows, either. The road hadn't been cleared yet. I got dressed to go outside. Marsha woke up and asked me what was going on. I told her the weather lady was wrong. It was even worse. It was a medium/long driveway. I pushed the door open and struggled to the garage, which was behind the house by quite a bit. I got the snowblower up and running. The snow was way higher than the blower, so it took a long time and a lot of struggle. At one point Marsha took a picture. Because I had cleared the driveway, the snow was higher than my head. All you could see in the picture was the last of the snow flying up on the pile.

I got to the funeral on time, then to the cemetery. The cemetery roads were cleared and there was a track leading to the grave for the pall bearers to carry the casket and the folks to follow. Our cemetery guys are the best. Anyway, when I got home I had to park on the street until I could clear the driveway again because it had snowed all day.

Tomorrow morning (Wednesday) it is to be 39 or 40 degrees with rain. I am so excited I could just be sick. However, in Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 the Bible talks about seasons. Of course, it is talking about the seasons in life and how they change, but we can put that same thinking to the seasons of the year, as well. Snow season is fleeting, Spring will come. But if you have reason to communicate with me before April 1, do not expect me to be happy!

Blessings and warm days to you all.