Snow, Snow Everywhere - In New Orleans ?

I woke up this morning, got ready like any other day and I looked outside. It was raining, just as the weatherman had said it was going to be doing. Of course, I live in New Orleans and you know what they say, "If you want to see the weather change, stick around for a minute." Anyway, the news was predicting that we might see some snowfall in certain areas, but it won't be substantial, so when I looked outside this morning and saw the rain, I assumed it was a missed call "again" and I left to go to my friends house to do some work. I was driving along on the interstate, rain beating on my windshield, traffic creeping along as usual, when I got to a certain point, and believe it or not, it was towards the south part of New Orleans, when I started seeing something that resembled a snowflake. As I kept creeping along it started getting heavier and heavier, almost blizzard conditions. I thought to myself," Am I in the right City? Did I take a wrong turn at Albequerque? " I got to my friends house and they were already outside taking pictures and throwing snowballs. You could see the smiles on their faces from down the street, snow tends to do that to people ( as long as they don't have to shovel it or drive in it ). The snow had caused school closings, businesses closing early, bridges closed down, some road closings, traffic accidents, continuous news coverage on every station , you would think we were having a hurricane. The only difference was, when it snows, the news stations continually talk about the snow with the jingle bells in the background, not mentioning one word about the bad things going on in the world today. All of the news reporters spoke with excitement in their voices and smiles on their faces and everyone they were interviewing had the same excitement. While at my friends house, the phone was flooded with friends calling excited about the snow. How ironic that it just happens to be the Holiday Season when most are in a cheerful mood, but because of the current financial struggles in the country today, some are not so cheerful. As I was taking pictures of this very rare snowfall occurring in a city that could use some cheer, I thought to myself, it's amazing how Mother Nature gives us something so beautiful that causes so much happiness and cheer. You don't have to go to a mall to get it, or use a credit card to buy it because it comes to you and IT"S FREE !
foremmalamb