226. Snow - Et Obiter Dicta

Yesterday around lunch time, snow finally arrived here along the Left Bank of the Ohio River near Milepost 606. To be honest, it was quite brief and none of the local media outlets reported on it, which meant it wasn't forecast, which would have resulted on a run on Milk and Bread at Mr. Kroger's local grocery outlet. Nor was anyone asking if schools would be out today, and of course, they aren't. Since it wasn't forecast, none of the local meteorologists managed to work themselves up into a tornadic frency, as they do when winds gets above 20 knots per hour somewhere off to the southwest like Brandenburg or Paducah. And since, with the exception of John Belski, who sometimes delivers his forecast from the WAVE Garden, an outdoor location at Floyd and Broadway, all the others ruminate about the outside conditions from an inside location, the few flakes of snow didn't make their individual radar screens. But, it was real, lasting not quite two minutes, most of which dissipated upon hitting Terra Firma. I observed it here on Jefferson Street, as did my mother out along South Park Road, as well as my friend Morgan Ransdell, who caught a few flakes down on Broadway. And to his credit, WAVE's Belski acknowledged it on his blog yesterday. As some of my five faithful readers are aware, I am a snow-freak. So, yesterday's snowflakes made for a more pleasant afternoon.

Snow, of course, leads to winter (in some parts). Here in Louisville, I mentioned the other day, we've erected for the first time an artificial tree, as opposed to the real lives types we've had for years, over in Jefferson Square for the Light up Louisville Celebration to be held the day after Thanksgiving. You will also recall, if you've been paying attention, that the Court House lawn itself has undergone extensive landscaping this year - at least the south side that everyone can see has - which included removing some aging shrubs which had lined the base of the Court House for many years, shrubs which in the Christmas Season were adorned to excess with Christmas Lights. Since the shrubs are gone, the lights are now possessed by several - many - way too many - of those PVC plastic statues in the forms of snowmen and women, reindeer, kids, some Dickensian looking characters, and other such forms, forms I find rather hideous and unbecoming the lawn of the Nations's 17th, or 27th, or 43rd Biggest Small Town. Or maybe they aren't. Maybe rather than being the One Great City which the Mayor of Louisville-Jefferson County Metro has often proclaimed us, usually with the solid backing of the Once Great Newspaper at Sixth and Broadway, maybe the PVC plastic stands wound with artificial lights representing artificial men, artificial women, artificial children, artificial animals, and artificial other things is apropos our real place in the world.

It makes one wonder the real character of those folks running this town. Are they being a Thomas Stockmann or a Peter Stockmann?