October 23, 2005 The first snow of fall

Last night we were awakened at 12:30 AM by fireworks about 2 blocks from our apartment. They lasted for 15 minutes. They were quite low and quite loud. The fireworks display was at the university in connection with meeting of small business owners. It was a shock to us. A more primitive person than I might assume that the fireworks caused the snowstorm that greeted us when we woke up. After all, these were the first fireworks we've seen in Joensuu and this was the first snowfall since last winter.

Last week we were in Savonlinna and the man we traveled with said that yesterday was summer, today is fall, and tomorrow is winter. This was because there was snow forecast for last week. This week when we saw him he apologized and said he was a week off. So now a few gold leaves and the snow are vying for our attention.