Third time actually is the charm

It's October 8 and Nome has had its first noticeable snow
accumulation. Literally as I write it's melting away into slush in a
warmer evening's light rain, but last night we saw our third snow of
the season actually fall in air cold enough to allow it to stick to
the ground.

Kids were out playing and throwing snowballs at each other through the
night, which became problematic for them when the police showed up on
Front Street in Nome PD SUV's to enforce the (midnight) curfew.

Anyway, it's getting cold, but not even close to as cold as it'll be
by the time winter actually gets here. As an Alaska rookie, it's
still strange for me to see the snow falling, and thus bringing to
mind all of my own associations with winter and Christmastime, while
also realizing that Halloween isn't even here yet.