First Snows

The Western North Carolina Mountains had their first snow day today. Watching the webcams from time to time during the day brought back many great memories. There’s a magic to the first snow that roots itself deep in memory, stretching across years and places. In Kings Mountain, NC, where the winters were mild and snow was a gift rather than a certainty, the first flakes meant the world was about to change. As a kid, waking up to a white-coated street was like waking up on Christmas morning. School would call it a day, and we’d pile out of the house, sleds in hand, to the steep street just beyond our driveway.

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Robo Plow – If You're Tired of Shoveling

I must admit, shoveling snow is not much of a concern when you live in Tampa, but for my many friends in the colder climates further north, here’s a little something you probably wish you had…especially this winter. Here is the Robo Plow, built obviously by a bunch of people with a lot of time on their hands during the winter. Now, if they’d just come up with one for raking those damned Live Oak leaves. Now that I could go for.

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