Dec. 21, 2006
A
lbuquerque, New Mexico Real Estate
A Winter Wonderland
Yesterday, folk were cross-country skiing in Albuquerque. Today, just half hour away up on Sandia Peak, they are skiing down the slopes.
I am at home this morning - all scheduled events cancelled since yesterday morning through tonight. Since we are so close to the Christmas and New Year holidays, essentially all business events to the end of the year have been cancelled.
The following email is typical of the notes I have received within the last twenty-four hours.
Hi everyone,
Hope you have a very Merry Christmas and New Year!!! The snow looks like a picture....beautiful.
The meeting for tonight is cancelled due to the weather, slick roads and traffic...we want you to be safe. Also, next week is cancelled for the after Christmas melt down. We will see you January.
Yesterday, I was scheduled to attend a luncheon at 11:30 a.m. in Estancia, Moriarty (if you remember, that is on the other side of the mountain). Monday night, my husband told me, "You won't be going to Estancia tomorrow." He was right. Even though the sky was overcast, I could see the mountains when I woke up and even a hint of glow behind them, but by 10:30 a gravelly hail was beginning to fall as I left home. “It won’t stick.” I told myself.
By 11:00 a.m., Albuquerque, was blanketed in white. We were in a winter wonderland --no mountains, no sky, just a fairy-tale world of white, like a stage or movie setting for a tale of enchantment. For all I could tell, the whole world was similarly transformed.
In the stores, clerks began wondering out loud about getting home safely later in the day, anticipating lower temperatures and icy roads. An obvious newcomer, not dressed for the weather, contemplating getting to his car outside the grocery store declared with a broad grin, "What's going on? I thought I had come to the desert. What's with this snow storm?" I thought to myself, "Welcome to the desert!"
I was hardly better dressed for the weather than the newcomer. I was wearing a coat, but not one suitable for wet weather, and had left my umbrella in the car. As I dashed back to my car trying to dodge the snow puffs, I sported a plastic grocery bag bonnet. Like many others in Albuquerque, I usually don't pay attention to forecast of bad weather, and we never believe it will be as bad as predicted.
Out here in the desert we are subject to sudden extremes — extreme winds, extreme rainfall, extreme heat, extreme cold, extreme snow. These extremes are always brief, however, and already, most of yesterday’s snow is melted from my south-facing front lawn. By tomorrow, we are likely to be wondering if it really happened.
The snow has been beautiful and thrilling. I felt like a child playing, as I drove around, taking advantage of business cancellations to do last minute personal chores. This morning, a friend in Edgewood, also on the other side of the mountain not far from Moriarty but only about thirty-five minutes away from Albuquerque, emailed to say they had received 12 inches of snow and it was still falling. It is beautiful, she wrote, but I am unable to get out of my driveway.
I couldn't resist taking pictures. I want to preserve the mood and the sentiments. If you think snow is beautiful falling on oak and grass, you should see it on piñon, sage, and rosemary. I love living here. In any season of the year, in any weather, "Albuquerque is beautiful, a true land of enchantment.
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