I looked outside this afternoon to see my freshly cleaned car -- I finally got the road salt washed out from underneath -- covered with droplets of water from the rain.

So much for that.

I knew it was coming, and it's still a relief to have the underside cleaned.

But the weird thing was the rain. I looked toward an evergreen in the back by the shed, watching the rain, and I saw something white fall in another part of the yard. I "widened" my vision to take in the whole yard, and noticed a snowflake here and there falling with the rain. It was like nothing I've ever seen before; it was as if someone in the clouds was dropping mini marshmallows from the sky. I've seen golf ball-sized hail, freezing rain and snowflakes the size of cotton balls, but never anything like this.

Now it's a more even mix, with as many snowflakes as raindrops, and it's expected to change over to snow tonight before settling into rain for the next few days.

Winter in the northeast.