"We lost our satellite service." (Clean the snow off the DISH).
"We're going stir crazy after two days indoors." (Take hike)
"The electricity went out and we have to burn wood in the fireplace." (Consider yourself lucky)
They showed pictures of grocery stores with bare empty shelves - I mean everything gone. (Like you all will be snowed in for two months with three inches of snow or can't survive a couple of days without ten bags of chips, eight jars of salsa and three cases of Mountain Dew)
We, up here in Connecticut, are having a more severe winter than usual, and we too are bitchin' and complainin' but, well we're almost used to it. We've been cooped up since Thanksgiving it seems. Putting on six layers of clothing to get the mail or walk the dog gets pretty depressing after a while. Talk about stir crazy.
To make it a bit worse, we're having a Vermont winter, which is to say it snows every other day or so and never gets above freezing. The snow just piles up. This makes for squeaky snow, no slush or ice and easy, or relatively easy hiking but if you don't shovel or snow-blow and keep up with the stuff, it gets harder the next time to clean up. We cleaned up after the last storm too soon; we missed the tail end of the storm which left another inch and a half of snow and did a half-assed job cleaning that, so part of our driveway and walkways still have a good layer of snow on them. Oh, well. Like I said, just like a Vermont winter.
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| The meadow before the wooded trails |
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| The dogs love it in the woods |
I'll admit, I did stop for milk and eggs and asparagus on the way home this afternoon. But we don't do chips or sugar-drinks at all. I'm thinking, "Sleep late, have asparagus and eggs (sans Benedict - too much butter), maybe some fruit and yogurt for breakfast."
So, all you Southerners, fear not. Enjoy a nice healthy breakfast. You will thaw out LONG before we do.
5 comments:
As a Southerner, i can attest to the weather being unlike any I've seen since we moved here seven years back, but i do laugh that, at the mere mention of snow late Monday, the schools began to close for two days, the government offices began to shut down.
But I guess that's good because these locals do not know how to drive in 2-inches of snow and it's best they stay off the roads and indoors!
Being born and bred in NJ and having lived in Atlanta for almost 10 years I am here to tell you people down there have absolutely no winter driving skills at all. They seem to think that placing your foot down on the gas pedal will make you get unstuck.
I couldn't believe the panic that would strike at the first sign of a snow flake falling from the sky.
You're forgiven, just don't laugh too hard. It really is scary down here to be iced in and stranded for several days at a time, unable to get the car out of the driveway, unable even to get to the car because the ground cover is slick as glass - we have no tire chains, no snow shovels, no snowblowers, no laser-beam ice-melting rayguns, and except for the 1% who live in McMansions, no fireplaces.
When my late husband was alive, and we lived in another, smaller town, one year the entire town was iced in and without electricity for 3 whole days. No phone, no lights, no motor cars that were of any use, and of course no internet. That's pretty damn bad by anybody's measure. We fortunately did have a gas heater, so we survived, but it was pretty rough. I tell you what.
You fellas at least have experience and equipment to deal with all such as that. Good on you, but we're really at the mercy of nature if it turns really bad.
I sincerely do apologize as I know what a bad storm can do, even in New England where we have generations of experience.
That big snow storm we had on Halloween 2011 knocked out our power for seven days plus (http://reluctantrebel.blogspot.com/2011/10/everything-looks-better-in-morning.html)
and it wasn't all fun and games running a generator and melting snow on the stove to flush the toilet. (http://reluctantrebel.blogspot.com/2011/11/little-house-in-colonies.html)
We only found out toward the end of the week that the local Health Club was allowing non-members to use their shower facilities for free. That was the only bright spot in the week.
I've been in Atlanta when there was a bit of freezing rain and cars were in ditches on the side of the road. With TV and mass communications, one would think that some driving tips would be disseminated to instruct southern drivers in how to avoid mishaps. Ah, but too few people would heed such messages. We are a country of "Don't tell me how to drive, live, think, eat, behave, talk." Oh well.
Leon and I were supposed to be heading to South Carolina to visit his mom sometime this week. But we've postponed our trip indefinitely - maybe we'll go when we're certain that spring has arrived there. No sense going South to see snow and ice.
Stay warm and safe.
Atlanta, where I lived once upon a time, is particularly treacherous when the ice covers all the steep, steep hills.
But no need to apologize, Frank - we enjoy all your yankee tourist dollars too much to stay mad at y'all. Grin.
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