Tuesday, February 13, 2007

It's Official. I'm Sick of Winter

As a kid, I loved winter. Loved everything about snow. My parents used to laugh at how my brother and I would go out for an hour, get cold and soaked, come inside, change and repeat the process all over again. One of our favorite things to do was dig tunnels in the giant snowdrifts outside our house. We'd dig back as far as possible and when it would collapse, we'd pop up through the center and start the process over again.

I'm not that excited about snow anymore. Especially when we are on week two of bad weather with no end in sight – and another storm is on the way.

Snow, nowadays, means hours of shoveling and sanding. It means driving slower and more defensively because of all the idiots with SUVs who haven’t learned that they have just as much traction on ice as someone without four wheel drive. I plan ahead in case I get stuck at work, which is an hour drive from my house in good weather. I carry an extra bag of clothes and toiletries with me at all times, and have friends that I can stay with, just in case the roads are too bad. There is water, a blanket, extra gloves and granola bars in my car in case I get stranded - and a good book to pass the time. I keep my gas tank filled and my cell phone charged. And all the time I am at work I'm constantly wondering: when is this storm supposed to hit; how much snow are we going to get; will I make it home tonight?

I should be used to this by now. I've worked in Buffalo for seven years now, lived in Western New York all my life. Seen the Blizzards of sixty-six and seventy-seven but thankfully was safe at home when both of them hit. I've been stranded twice at work and survived that inconvenience. And it definitely could be worse - I could live and work in Oneida County, New York where they've gotten over one hundred inches of snow the past week.

But I'm not happy. All I can think of is green grass and spring flowers and a black car that isn't white from the layer of salt spray on it. I’m thinking of all the idiot neocons who are making jokes about global warming in the midst of this cold spell – kind of like when they make jokes about Democrats who say Saddam Hussein had nothing to do with bin Laden and 9-11, or “they were for the war before they were against it”.

While I am waiting for the snow, I will continue to check the radar and Doppler. I will remain cautiously optimistic that my bosses will let us out early enough that the roads aren’t jammed with all the other businesses who were let out early.


And I will ride out this storm, just like all other storms brewing on the horizon.

2 Comments:

At 2/13/2007 12:26:00 PM, Blogger not_over_it said...

*crossing fingers*

I hate winter.

 
At 2/13/2007 01:48:00 PM, Blogger InternetJunkie said...

I'm crossing everything I've got - which ain't pretty.

It could possibly stay to the south of us, but I'm not holding out much hope.

*heavy sigh*

 

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