
It was a typically chilly New England afternoon. The sun came out intermittently. I buzzed around town doing errands. Went into an eyeglass place and when I came out, a frozen white hell had broken loose.
Wind whipped wildly and made it difficult to open the door of the building to exit. Millions of icy darts froze my face as I struggled to put the hood of my jacket on my head.
"What?" I gasped. "It wasn't like this 10 minutes ago."

Traffic everywhere moved at a crawl. All cars, including mine, switched headlights on although they didn't do much for visibility. It was as if a gigantic white curtain descended from the heavens. Nothing came into focus, either from the left or the right. All I could see was a massive whiteout.

At one point, I gently applied the brakes and felt the car skid to the right. There was no way to control anything so I just prayed nothing would slam into us. Thankfully, nothing did.

A long line of headlights from cars coming toward us broke the eerie whiteness. Wind whipped the millions of snowflakes into a blinding fury.
Squinting my eyes, I finally found our street and turned right and then left into our driveway. Home at last.
The aftermath of the freak storm turned everything into ice palace loveliness. Thick layers of frosted snow lined the branches of nearby trees. More snow swirled down from the heavens and landed softly on the whitened earth.

Once inside, after stomping my feet in the front hallway, we lit a fire in the fireplace and luxuriated in its warmth. We were blessedly cozy inside, safe from the elements.

Such is a winter afternoon in New England.
What is winter like where you live? Do you like it or do you prefer another season?