Here comes the snow

We were waiting for the news to come on this evening when a winter weather advisory was flashed across the bottom of the TV screen on our local station. Most of the tri-state area is under a winter weather advisory they said. We simultaneously looked outside to view a beautiful blue, clear sky with no hint of bad weather. Where did this come from, we wondered? This isn't fair. We had big plans for this weekend.

They are saying, according to Accu-weather Radars and all the other latest weather-predicting technology available, that we are expected to receive anywhere from two to five inches of snow starting tomorrow and extending into Saturday. The meteorologist on the five o'clock news said that we might even receive more than five inches. In fact, they are predicting a possible repeat of last winter's monster storm where we received about umpteen inches of snow over a 24-hour period of time. We were snowed in for a week. Which, of course, led us to purchase a massive snowblower that sits gloriously in our garage still unused.

With this prediction of bad weather, we took a mental inventory of foodstuffs and decided we would be able to survive for the next six weeks if necessary. We unwittingly had shopped the past two days and we are definitely set. We have plenty of kitty litter, cat food, toilet paper, shampoo, dishwasher detergent, toothpaste, body wash, lightbulbs, a box of Valentine chocolates, cokes, bottled water, and margarine. In fact, I think we purchased about half the items on the pharmacy's shelves today (including a few personal items too personal to mention).

When I was growing up in the Chicago area, we experienced a lot of snow. It was normal for it to snow massive amounts from late October until April. And, the average winter temperatures were mostly Arctic (meaning freeze-your-earlobes-off cold).

Here in western Kentucky, we have mostly temperate weather and it snows infrequently. With the prospect of a little or a lot of white stuff coming, people in this area tend to get into their hibernation mode. They run to the store and purchase all the perishables they can pack into their vehicles. They stock up on everything they can think of -- just in case. The schools were already closed for the rest of the week because of an outbreak of strep throat and stomach virus, otherwise they would have closed the schools anyway with the arrival of the first snowflake. Everyone takes a little or a lot of snow very seriously around here.

Husband moved his truck from the driveway to the road in front of the house, made sure the driveway was clear of all rocks and other debris, went to the store and purchased engine oil, and plans to go to the gas station tomorrow morning to purchase some gas (just in case he finally gets to use his virgin snowblower).

I sat in the house and watched as husband went about his preparatory chores and I just sighed. I thought, all this fuss over a bit of frozen precipitation. It's not as if we live in Alaska, for God's sake. But then I thought, this impending snowstorm is probably the most exciting thing that has happened around here lately (next to the Superbowl, hunting season, skunks being in heat, and the Grammy awards) and will give the old folks something interesting to talk about for the next two weeks and the kiddies something more fun to play with than their X-boxes.

As a friend of mine says, just bring it . . . on.

Addendum, Saturday, February 11: After all the hype, what we got was a mere dusting of snow. You might even say we only got less than an inch of the white stuff and what a disappointment. They actually got more south of us which ruined our traveling plans, so I guess we will stay home today and watch the Olympics instead. (I think husband is going to have to enshrine our snowblower in acryllic so he can admire it while it remains in pristine condition because I don't think this baby is ever gonna get used.)