RUNNING IN THE FIRST SNOW

There has been a bit of anticipation for me this week.  I have an IPhone and an app on it for the weather.  Every morning I have looked at the forecast for the next 5 days.  Partly to see if it will be sunny on a weekend day so we can get the yard raked and mowed one last time and clean out the gutters which are stuffed with leaves.  The other reason is for indications leading to the first snow.  I'm not a huge winter lover like I was in my younger years.  But, once the leaves fall off and the air turns cool and windy, I look forward to my yearly tradition - running in the first snowfall.   It happened today on this November 10th.  Snow blew through the air as the wind whipped it around.  The first flakes that fell were huge big ornate ones that almost didn't look real.  As the evening was starting to dim and turn to night, I embraced the 30 degrees for a run in the first snowfall.  It wasn't a peaceful snowfall, the kind that lazily makes it way to the ground.  This snow was driven by wind and bordered on heavy and wet.  It didn't matter so much.  Running in the first snow was just an experience that I actually looked forward to yearly.  There is a feel when out in it as if you are witnessing a sort of changing of the guard.  Like Buckingham Palace, fall marched off as winter stood guard now.  As I ran, my mouth slightly ajar, big wet snowflakes pelted my face and dripped down my sunglasses.  A few of them landed on my lips and in my mouth.   The cold shoved its way to my lungs, irritating and constricting them.  I silently saluted the passing of the baton from fall to the first showing of winter.  I had a VIP pass to the event.  No one was out.  A rare few venture out to experience the changing of the guard, rather merely watching it from inside.  I ran in awe once again.  I felt privileged, almost voyeuristic.  I got to usher in a new stage, a fresh season.