November 30

November at an end, and the town trucks were out last night for the first time this season. We heard them lumbering slowly down the road, spreading salt in anticipation of a small storm that was to bring an inch or so of wet snow.

The forecast didn’t pan out save for a transitional rain which was more nuisance than anything; we’re still in a fair drought from the deficit of this past several months. (The upper reservoir along Route 56 is evidence of this, as the water has depleted so that it is nearly possible to walk across.)

The salted roads were a bluish slurry at daybreak, with small streams of runoff moving down the roadside, taking it all downhill and collecting where we can only imagine with reluctance.

By the afternoon, the sun shone through for a few hours, enough to hasten the evaporation of moisture from the pavement. What remained were the remnant salts not carried to the roadside, leaving the surface chalky white and making it look as if a light dusting of snow happened after all.