At 1 this morning I was in the middle of a "Splinter Cell" binge when I looked up and noticed that the tree outside was paler than usual. Upon further investigation I discovered this scene outside my front door:

My sworn meteorological enemy had paid the City of Roses an unexpected visit. While I was busy vicariously stealing encrypted files from a fictional terrorist's Manhattan penthouse, it was snowing outside. In March. Which just doesn't happen around these parts.

Knowing that this batch of the white stuff proved no threat to my livelihood since it would be gone by morning, I headed outside and built this snowman in the middle of the street.

I couldn't find any rocks so he had to settle for a leaf nose and a wig made out of barkdust. The original plan had been to build a row of snowman and have them block off the street Les Miserables-style. I might have even gone so far as to build them a blockade. Unfortunately, that sort of prank would have taken at least 30 minutes and it was already past my bedtime.

I figured a battalion of traffic revolutionaries would all melt by dawn. Sure enough, when I headed to work this little fella was long gone, either done in by a neighbor's Pathfinder or daylight's cruel indifference.

The snow is all gone now but various weathermen around town are predicting another few inches of accumulation below 500 feet tonight. We shall see.