first snow
first snow

Friday was a perfect day.

Perfect despite the fact that over 8 hours of the day were spent in my office. I will disclose that my office just happens to be located on the shore of Mirror Lake - right at the Ironman Lake Placid swim start line. To keep me on task, my desk is positioned so that I'm facing AWAY from the window, but on occasion, I do steal glances - just to make sure it isn't dark out yet, and that I'm not missing an important Adirondack wildlife sighting.

It is easy to get completely lost within the parameters of the 17 inch laptop screen and the endless stream of voices, information and links on the intertubes. I can actually forget that just behind me is a spectacular view of Whiteface Mountain, and sometimes a pair of loons.

I was working away - finishing up some content for various projects and then checking up on Twitter, Facebook and other social networking media - as is my job on behalf of Lake Placid. At around noon I noticed a topic trend aligned with our destination. The word "snow". It was showing up first as a weather forecast on a number of friends and business facebook pages, then as a weather REPORT via Twitter - someone said it was snowing outside their window.

I turned around.

My coworkers noticed at the same time - even without the benefit of the instantaneous nature of social media. It was snowing outside - on October 15th, no less! We all stared at it, took pictures to post and went back to our work. As it turns out, we spent the next few hours taking updated snow accumulation pictures to post and marveled at the amount of feedback and sharing they stimulated.

Facebook friends who live here were reporting that they were getting their skis out, kids were making snowmen, and Whiteface turned on the slopeside webcam that isn't usually on 'til they are about to open for the ski and ride season. I didn't need to be in town to feel the exhilaration - it was reported accurately online in real time.

It's amazing what's its like to be in Lake Placid when the first snow arrives. There are a lot of ski towns that embrace winter, but the residents of Lake Placid simply GLOW when the ground turns white. Not surprising - this WAS the very first winter resort...people have been coming here to play in the snow for over a century.

We knew this was a short-lived snowfall - it's only October, after all. But I actually enjoyed slopping through the snow-covered parking lot to my car, only to realize that I had not yet added the snow scraper to my daily commuter arsenal. I stepped up and joined the snow-happy e-crowd, and gleefully scraped 4 inches of snow off my car with a recycled shopping bag.

Good practice, I think.