The snow­drifts strewn across the Fens ath­letic fields vary in depth from ankle-high to knee-high, mak­ing each exag­ger­ated step a sur­prise. A group of mis­chie­vous kids on Park Drive cre­atively re-route the nearly nonex­is­tent traf­fic by cast­ing dozens of snowy repli­cas of an orange traf­fic cone pil­fered from a nearby con­struc­tion site. A storm passes, some­how more a nov­elty than part of the season.

Dry inside, I pack a suit­case full of short sleeves. This week’s des­ti­na­tion: Santa Barbara.