Last Sunday, the weather app on my phone chirped while I sipped my coffee. When I read the alert aloud, it said we were under a winter-storm advisory for Tuesday. Jilda was giddy. She loves snow. I enjoy it more now that I don’t have a job that requires me to drive into work. Soon, we were making snow-day plans.
Stepping out to the shed, I checked the generator. We don’t normally lose power when it snows, but if the weatherman is wrong, we could have ice or freezing rain. That’s a different story. The generator was good to go, but I put a reminder on my phone to fill the gas can and get a few extra quarts of oil.
After morning chores, we headed out to Walmart. We don’t eat much loaf bread, and we had plenty of milk in the fridge, so we avoided those aisles as if someone over there had the swine flu. We did make sure we had what we needed to make snow ice cream. We paid the tab and headed for home.
That evening, I scanned Facebook to catch up on the news. Since I’ve blocked, deleted, or hid most of the people that post political crap, my timeline causes me much less stress these days. One of my friends shared a weather map. It used loaves of bread to show how bad the snow would be in various areas of the state. It looked like the snowfall predicted for Empire would require two loaves of bread. I howled when I saw that graphic.
My great nephew Jordan would be celebrating his birthday on Tuesday. He loves snow more than we do and he was cranked that the governor had declared a snow day on his birthday.
Sometime after midnight, I heard rain begin to rattle our metal roof gently. That sound is better than a sleeping tonic for me.
The next day, my eyes popped open at first light. Scrambling out of bed, I hustled to the garden door to get the scoop. There was no scoop.
Stepping onto the deck, I walked over to the banister. There was a trace of snow. It looked more like someone with bad dandruff stood out there and scratched their head.
I dreaded breaking the news to Jilda, but when I turned to go inside, she was standing behind me. She said, “Well SHOOT!” (Except what she said, could not be printed in a family paper.)
Pulling the phone from my pocket, I snapped a picture of the pitiful snowfall.
After pouring our coffee, we sat on the couch in front of the fireplace and stewed.
Logging onto Facebook, I posted the snow picture and MARKED US SAFE from the snow-mageddon 2019.
I saw where the local weather folk were taking a beating on social media over the miscall. Here’s the thing – I’d much rather have them err on the side of caution in this situation. If they predict snow and they’re wrong, the kids and parents get a snow day. If they say it’s not going to snow and it does, people could end up getting hurt.
The Weather-folk must have taken the criticism in stride, I saw where someone posted, “If you still want a Blizzard, Dairy Queen opens at 10 a.m.”
Stepping out to the shed, I checked the generator. We don’t normally lose power when it snows, but if the weatherman is wrong, we could have ice or freezing rain. That’s a different story. The generator was good to go, but I put a reminder on my phone to fill the gas can and get a few extra quarts of oil.
After morning chores, we headed out to Walmart. We don’t eat much loaf bread, and we had plenty of milk in the fridge, so we avoided those aisles as if someone over there had the swine flu. We did make sure we had what we needed to make snow ice cream. We paid the tab and headed for home.
That evening, I scanned Facebook to catch up on the news. Since I’ve blocked, deleted, or hid most of the people that post political crap, my timeline causes me much less stress these days. One of my friends shared a weather map. It used loaves of bread to show how bad the snow would be in various areas of the state. It looked like the snowfall predicted for Empire would require two loaves of bread. I howled when I saw that graphic.
My great nephew Jordan would be celebrating his birthday on Tuesday. He loves snow more than we do and he was cranked that the governor had declared a snow day on his birthday.
Sometime after midnight, I heard rain begin to rattle our metal roof gently. That sound is better than a sleeping tonic for me.
The next day, my eyes popped open at first light. Scrambling out of bed, I hustled to the garden door to get the scoop. There was no scoop.
Stepping onto the deck, I walked over to the banister. There was a trace of snow. It looked more like someone with bad dandruff stood out there and scratched their head.
I dreaded breaking the news to Jilda, but when I turned to go inside, she was standing behind me. She said, “Well SHOOT!” (Except what she said, could not be printed in a family paper.)
Pulling the phone from my pocket, I snapped a picture of the pitiful snowfall.
After pouring our coffee, we sat on the couch in front of the fireplace and stewed.
Logging onto Facebook, I posted the snow picture and MARKED US SAFE from the snow-mageddon 2019.
I saw where the local weather folk were taking a beating on social media over the miscall. Here’s the thing – I’d much rather have them err on the side of caution in this situation. If they predict snow and they’re wrong, the kids and parents get a snow day. If they say it’s not going to snow and it does, people could end up getting hurt.
The Weather-folk must have taken the criticism in stride, I saw where someone posted, “If you still want a Blizzard, Dairy Queen opens at 10 a.m.”
Looks like someone slit open an old kapok mattress and scattered it around. Remember kapok? No? Your mother would have I'm sure.
ReplyDeleteAlphie
I am glad we southerners can laugh at one another. I thought all that "Buy the store out of bread and milk" stuff was a joke. But last year I stopped by the grocers to get a loaf of bread and the shelves were empty. Dumb me asked a clerk "what is the problem?" "WHAT, yo haven't heard it is going to snow?" I left shaking my head, I wanted to say, are we expecting a two week blizzard or something.
ReplyDeleteAny way, good picture of all the snow! ;-)
As long as I can just stay home, which is most of the time, I love the snow also. These days it seems like you are not supposed to admit that, but I do and always have. I lived in Ca til I was 8, when we moved back east, the snow was and has always seemed magical to me.
ReplyDeleteThat snow is as much as we get most years. And I do love to see it fall.
ReplyDeleteYou are soooo right about the better safe than sorry issue too. I would much rather be warned about a disaster that doesn't happen than not get the warning.
I think you need the snowblower:). Last week we had a Ron of snow and -18C temps, today we had 11C...Crazy! I love snow as I said before but, right now, rain but it will snow again...possibly by Wednesday. Love the Dairy Queen joke.hahahaa.
ReplyDeleteOne thing I know, our bread shelves are always stocked like it's going to snow for ever. hahaha. Either that or we are all bread addicts.
ReplyDeleteSorry if you're not visited by the Snow Fairy, but I think she lives around here somewhere.
Maybe she's getting too old and tired from working hard in these parts to travel all the way to Empire.
Hugs, Julia
In my town, we look at pictures like yours and get excited that it even stuck to the banister and schools would close.
ReplyDeleteLisa
We are supposed to get up to 3 inches of snow over the next couple of days. I hope they are wrong.
ReplyDeleteLove the Dairy Queen comment!!
ReplyDeleteDear Rick, sorry to be away for so long from reading your blog. Life happened!
ReplyDeleteToday's posting hit home because here in Independence, which is mid-way North/South and on the western edge of the state, we often miss the storms. This year, however, we've gotten much more snow than usual.
The weather that has really caught everyone's attention here, however, is the wind chill. Today, at 8 AM it was 4 degrees above 0 Fahrenheit. that's are a real rarity for here. And it's been like that now for several weeks.
My favorite line from a local meteorologist is this: "Well, there'll be snow this weekend. (long pause) Or not." And that about sums it up! Peace.