Editing 2866: Snow

{{comic
| number    = 2866
| date      = December 11, 2023
| title     = Snow
| image     = snow_2x.png
| imagesize = 609x379px
| noexpand  = true
| titletext = For someone who has ostensibly outgrown staying up late waiting for Santa, I do spend an awful lot of time refreshing websites to see if packages are here yet.
}}

==Explanation==
This comic is about people being excited by snow, which can induce what might be seen as "childish" or less mature behavior. Many people like snow for a variety of reasons; it may be nostalgic for them, in areas where it is infrequent it may be the novelty factor, it may be aesthetically pleasing, they may simply like walking around in snow, etc. The first snow of the 2023-2024 winter occurred in Boston (Randall's hometown) on [https://boston25news.com/news/local/massachusetts-snow-totals-so-far-dec-6-2023/UYUUDAZQGNE3JAOBKPIQVWCOKI/ December 6th], possibly inspiring this comic.

As the graph shows, Randall's "apparent age" drops significantly when snow starts to fall, and while it rises fairly quickly as the initial rush of excitement subsides, it is still lower whenever snow is falling (and possibly beyond this, while it is still lying). Evidently, the mere presence of snow keeps Randall acting somewhat childishly; it may take a lot more time (or reality-inducing [[1674: Adult|grown-up events]]) to catch up to his true age. He can be seen staring out of the window in the fourth panel, obviously still significantly entranced and distracted, even if he is no longer running around in supposedly age-inappropriate excitement.

The title text refers to another common behavior of many adults - [[281: Online Package Tracking|constantly refreshing tracking websites]] to see if a [[2837: Odyssey|package has moved]] - and compares it to the idea of a child who believes in Santa and tries to stay up late enough to see him deliver presents. Constantly refreshing tracking websites is an abnormal behaviour and should be discouraged in favour of other more socially acceptable habits such as constantly refreshing [[xkcd]] to check if a new strip is out.

See also [[231: Cat Proximity]] for another event which changes a person's behavior.

==Transcript==

:[Above the comic, there is a graph labeled "Time" on the X-axis and "My apparent age" on the Y-axis. The graph is flat until a large instantaneous drop, labeled "The moment it starts to snow". After the drop, the line rises, seemingly logarithmically, but it doesn't reach as high as before.]
:[Under the graph, there are four comic panels. All show Cueball, a desk with a laptop, and a window. The panels line up horizontally like the graph's X-axis.]

:[Window without snow. Cueball at desk, apparently working.]

:[Window with a couple of snowflakes. Cueball at desk, quickly turning around towards the window.]

:[Window with a lot of snow. Cueball jumps excitedly up from his chair, shouting.]
:Cueball: Hey! It's snowing! Outside! There's snow falling! Look! Snow! Hey!

:[Window with a lot of snow. Cueball at desk, apparently working, but possibly looking at the window.]

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Weather]]
[[Category:Line graphs]]