I woke up two days ago, smug about the hard freeze the night before (I read somewhere that a “hard freeze” is 28° or lower) because I’d had my sprinklers shut off several days earlier. Outside I heard a lot of noise, like big trucks or something. Somebody repairing burst pipes or broken sprinklers? Couldn’t figure out what it was until I looked out an hour later and noticed bundles of shingles piled on the roof behind me (they weren’t there before). This despite the 34° reading on the thermometer. They were little late to the neighborhood roofing party we’ve had going all summer, but that might not be a bad thing. My poor roofers worked on a 95° day.

A bit later, the sounds of lawnmowers in several directions. It was, after all, only October 10. The grass is still growing, although more slowly than in summer.

And then … snow. Silently falling as lawnmowers roared. Whither autumn? Still coming, or already gone? I really had to chuckle at how the morning had sounded.

Fortunately it didn’t snow for long. All the trees still have their leaves and a heavy snow now would do a lot of damage.

In the mountains, of course, ski resort operators are ecstatic. They’ve been getting snow for several days. Early Wednesday, westbound I-70 through the mountains was actually closed due to heavy snow and treacherous driving conditions.

Later that afternoon we got another freeze warning. I looked up, and it was snowing again.

And then it stopped again.

Yesterday, Thursday, it was still cold (around 40°) and cloudy. But no snow. Only the heavy sounds of shingles being delivered to the house across the street. There’s going to be a lot of hammering around here in the next week …

Today dawned bright and sunny, with a forecast for maybe the mid-60s. Hurray! Fall. At last.

Except we’re supposed to get 3-4 inches of snow Sunday. Sheesh.