Expedition 5280: 11/25/07

Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Christmas Time

Now that the feeding frenzy of Thanksgiving is over, we can settle into the calm, joyous, and tranquil time of year- the time of year where everyone becomes friendly and warm to one another and we all get together to visit with our friends and family around a warm fire and drink a cup o' Nog. Or not. Typically this time of year brings out the absolute worst in people. People rushing around, being not-to-friendly toward others, and buying, buying, buying. After all, as good Americans, we need to give the economy a good boost, right? Ready or not, Christmas time is here.

Isn't it a weird time of year? Maybe people get all grumpy and irritable during this time because they are out, spending their money on someone other than themselves...So much for the joyful giving spirit.

All grumpiness aside, I love Christmas: the cold weather, neat decorations all over the place, and most importantly, what it stands for. Since Julie and I are away from all of the great Christmas festivities that we have come to expect for the past 29 and 30 years we decided to make up for it here. The day after thanksgiving our neighbors, Julie and myself all headed to a tree farm in Evergreen CO. This place was really cool. Not only was this tree lot set up on the owners land which surround his house, it was all decked out in Christmas decor and could entertain a whole family.

Won't the tree skirt look great mom?

A Recent Rare Phenomenon

Last night we were at a local coffee shop with some friends. While sitting by the widow, we noticed that it had unexpectedly begun snowing. A few minutes later we all looked up to notice bright flashes, similar to that from a camera flash reflecting in the window. Since you never see lightning (or hear thunder) during a snow storm we all looked around for the abnoxiously bright flash from someones camera. It was nowhere to be found. Next thing we hear the boom of thunder and immediately car alarms start sounding. At this point we all look outside to see what looks like hail....but its not. It is simply pea sized snowballs that are falling like rocks from the sky. Needless to say, this was the first time any of us had experienced anything like this. The snowballs were not hard but soft...just like snow. The lightning and thunder continued for a while longer, as most everyone who was in the coffee shop either was glued to the windows or went outside for closer inspection. Bethany, who was sitting with our group, said that she had heard something like this happening before and said it was called a "thundersnow storm". Well, it is a true and rare event that is even more rare in a "land locked" state like Colorado. Here is the local newspaper headline from the Rocky Mountain News: "We were enjoying the lights, sights and sounds of a thundersnow that rolled through downtown around 9:30 p.m. And, we didn't make up that word thundersnow, either. It's a real, but rare phenomenon (and very rare in landlocked Colorado), according to a quickie Google search. In the simplest of terms, cold air meets warm air. As those two air masses interact, it causes friction, or a convection (up- and-down movement of air), which if violent enough, can cause lightning and thunder".

If you are still interested, check out the Wikipedia article for it : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thundersnow