We had a job candidate from Houston in town for an interview Tuesday.

You remember Tuesday.

Ten inches of snow Tuesday.

Wasn't that a nice how-do-you-do for someone from the Southwest. What luck.

Of all the days in the last three weeks she could have come for a visit, she arrives for our all-day whiteout.

And if that weren't enough, she had driven to Auburn from Boston in a rental car, and needed to drive back to Boston Tuesday evening.

The snowstorm would escort her back.

Once the interview concluded, I walked her to our front door, shook her hand - which may have been trembling - and gave her that ageless piece of advice: "Drive safe."

She nodded with an ashen stare fixed on the window.

And the snowstorm.

Folks from the South only see snowstorms on television, during holiday shows like "It's a Wonderful Life" and "A Christmas Story." Then they turn the TV off, and go out to pick a near-dead, trucked-in Christmas tree from the Piggly Wiggly grocery store parking lot, right before a round of golf in their shorts.

Snow is gorgeous when it comes down light, fluffy, and vertically - not thick, ice-encased, and horizontally. It's especially pretty when you're watching it fall from somewhere other than behind the steering wheel.

When my wife - who was born in Mississippi and raised in Louisiana - first saw evergreen firs and spruces in the winter, she was amazed.

"Look at those Christmas trees. They're everywhere."

Down South, they import spruces from the North for their month-long living room season. But there aren't many to choose from at the Piggly Wiggly, and most of them are pathetic, underdeveloped cast-off orphans from the real tree farms here in the North.

Which is why my wife was so taken with these trees.

Christmas trees in people's yards. Christmas trees along the interstate.

When you've spent your whole life in the North, you can begin to take certain scenes for granted. Like snow laying on shoulders of each branch of a spruce, just like the ceramic miniatures that southerners buy for their window ledges to make it 'feel' like Christmas in their air-conditioned homes.

Take a ride down to Hoopes Park or drive down Lake Avenue after a fresh snow, and appreciate what southerners can only see on TV or shake up in a plastic snow globe they bought at the Winn-Dixie grocery store checkout.

Cayuga County boasts gorgeous winter scenery.

Or as my wife says:

"It's like a postcard."

Like a postcard you'd see in the South, when you're searching for Christmas-y items on a 75-degree in late December.

And this was the way it looked Wednesday, the day after the snowfall.

The snow was hugging the welcome umbrella of branches along Genesee on the city's east end. Lawns were groomed with white frosting. Icicles glittered, sparkling on the edges of the city portrait. And the streets were clear.

This was beautiful viewing from behind the wheel.

But our job candidate was now gone.

We're hoping she'll take the job.

Maybe sending her a postcard will help.

Editor Mikel LeFort can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 230, or at mikel.lefort@lee.net