By Hal Walter One snowy morning this fall, at the school-bus stop, another parent commented on the weather, asking, “You think this means we’re going to get some actual snow this winter?” I thought about this briefly and then recalled that the previous fall it had snowed a couple times early, then basically stopped for the entire season. I replied that based on last year’s record, wading through drifts at Halloween brings no confidence for a snowy winter. “Really? I don’t remember that,” she said. “Yeah, that’s how it went,” I reassured her. Nevertheless, I set about daydreaming of cross-country ...