The misery of the "pretty" snow
By sharone74
@sharone74 (4839)
United States
January 19, 2011 10:16am CST
People always talk about how picture postcard and tranquil snow is, and how nice it is. I don't know why people want to promote that pastoral image, unless like married people do to their single friends, they are trying to suck in the unsuspecting so they can share the misery. I have a friend who lives in Chicago and another that lives in New York, and they are always telling me how great it would be if I would come and visit. They both tell me that visiting in the summer is a humid, muggy, and nasty mess that I don't want to get into. They always invite me for the holidays, or winter breaks, or whatever, and they are always trying to sell me the mental equivalent of Bing Crosby's White Christmas. How dreamy and pretty it all is, all of the winter activities like ice skating, hockey, and snowball fights.
BUT PUMP YOUR BREAKS THERE IS MORE!
Act now and you can get blisteringly cold snowstorms that you have to dig yourself and your vehicle out of. The cold wet hands, the icy damp feet. The auto ballet of sliding vehicles out on the freeway. The power outages, the mud, the slush, the endless seige of interminable ice and snow that keeps people in the house trying to stay snug and cozy. Yeah snow is great, as long as I can look at it, love it from afar, but not have to live in it. "What kinda sucker do they think I am?" I ask myself. I would never visit the midwest or the northeast in the wintertime no matter how pretty and wonderful they lie and tell me it is, just like they are never going to come out here to enjoy my 120 degree farenheit in the shade summers in the Southern California desert. With mid January temps in the high eighties and low nineties this year they are soooooooo barking up the wrong babe to come wallow in the snow with them for a visit!
I see the weather news in passing and all I hear all winter is, we've got another huge, miserable, drift piling storm either just passing or just coming for the midwest and the northeast. I'll tell you folks what, y'all can have it, all of it, every frosty, pretty, last flake of it.I moved to California because I hate to be cold, and watching the weather news from y'alls part of the world, it makes me cold just looking at it!
So how about you, do ya love the winter snow? hate it? want some? or want less? and where do ya live?
1 response
@petersum (4526)
• United States
19 Jan 11
Well I come from Britain where it is mostly too cold for snow to fall. This year was a rare occasion when a lot came at once. You must have heard how the transport authorities handled the situation so badly. Not surprising really. As a child, I only remember deep snow once. So you see, snow is a rare pleasure at least for the first few hours. But you have to experience it first hand, a picture postcard doesn't give the correct perspective.
@sharone74 (4839)
• United States
21 Jan 11
Seeing it in a picture and living in it are indeed two very different things. The American Midwest is known for it's snow and subzero temperatures. My relatives in Indiana are living in a freezer, they are snug in their warm homes of course, but there is work and school and life in general and regardless of the stores that you have laid by in your cozy home, you must come out some time! I don't think that I would like to live someplace where it is too cold to even snow! Great Britain is one of the few islands on the planet that is cold, but that kind of bone numbing cold while horrifying is not nearly as bad as trtying to drive on icy frozen streets and sliding into snow drifts. Walking in deepo snow is a nightmare and more than a few people slip and break bones in snow country. I say more power to em, they can have it. It is 64 degrees here at 10 am and it will be in the seventies this afternoon and it is January 21st. To put that in perspective it is 21 degrees below zero today in Minnesota.
