A Texan's Notes on Snow

—An impending snow can be sensed—the way you can smell rain before it falls or the way animals worry themselves before tornadoes. Not by me, you understand—all colds are the same to my palate—but by friends from farther north who smell home in a wet freeze.

—In the taxonomy of flakes, the loveliest are the fat, lazy puffs falling in no particular hurry. The tiny zooming pellets, on the other hand, are your best hope for a snow day the next morning. I imagine kids press their noses to windows and silently urge on these flakes. I know I was.

—Freezing rain falling on a blanket of snow will crust the top over. This is the dog's favorite snow. He kerplomps all over the backyard, in love with the sound his paws are making—like a spoon cracking the shell of a creme brulee.