When winter storm "Hercules" took a dump this past week, I, like millions of Americans, woke up to CNN newspeople yelling and laughing, and climbing snow banks and oddly gesticulating, as they do, toward satellite maps and radar readouts. They made jokes and threw snowballs, and pointed out snowplows and train crews doing their jobs.
When the MTA cancels full service for something other than a shooting or a sleep-deprived speed demon, you can rest assured the weather is actually bad. Millions of people in the New York metro area alone are impacted directly ... Not to mention the densely populated Eastern Seaboard, from roughly Richmond, Virginia up to Boston, and inward (Philadelphia, Newark, Albany) ...
Add to this the domino effect of canceled flights, disrupted travel, delays and impatience, shutdowns and slowdowns, severe Arctic cold and a weather-related death or two ... and you've got the makings of a weather "event".
But seasonally speaking, is it really so newsworthy?
Like millions of Americans, I woke up Thursday morning to a snowstorm. Like hundreds, perhaps even thousands of Americans, I wondered after the fourth or fifth hour of "Breaking News" coverage, what the big deal was.
In other words, like millions of Americans -- and people from various regions across the globe also directly impacted by winter weather -- I woke up to a snowstorm.
What's the big deal?
Visiting family and friends in northern Wisconsin this holiday season, I'd already spent several weeks with frozen finger and nose tips, relentless gray skies and accumulated December snowfall of over three feet (nearly 1 meter). As an uncout' yout' growing up in the northland, I remember regular "snow days" - when school would be closed not because of snow, but because it was twenty below zero and pipes would freeze ... not only my pipes, but the plumbing in the late 19th century school buildings also. It would be too cold for school!
When winter happens ... even a powerful winter weather "event", like a "Hercules" (or "Ion" now!) ... I don't need to be seeing reporters bundled up, telling me to keep warm, or how to throw snowballs. I don't need to learn the phrase, "polar vortex".
It's WINTER. It's cold out. It snows. Sometimes, it snows hard, fast, wet and sloppy ... Sometimes the cold is subzero, and ice forms. Ice, if you're walking or driving on it, can make you slip and slide, lose control ... Drive safely.
It's winter outside. If you prefer to stay inside, set your thermostat to 70-ish. Don't open the window to let in fresh air - It may feel good for a minute or two, but in the end, you're only inviting the cold in; what you want to be doing is keeping it out. The human condition of comfort demands warmth.
Stay warm this winter. Bundle up. Dress in layers - but don't wear anything too tight, or you might sweat.
Stay indoors if you'd rather, or if you must. Have plenty of food on hand, a flashlight, blankets, and make sure all your prescriptions are filled.
Then read a book. Or better yet, talk to your family. Communicate. Play games ... some charades, a little Monopoly maybe, some Trivial Pursuit. Build a house of cards or play poker, or chess ... But unplug, if you'd like things to thrive while "surviving". If the power goes out, try not to light candles ... It might be romantic, but you might fall asleep and your house might burn down.
Beyond this, don't be afraid to embrace winter: its beauty, its power, its furious grace ... and celebrate what we 'up north' -- in the Northern Hemisphere -- are lucky to know as our holiday season.
 |
| “Tundric Technicolor”, ©Jeff Glovsky |
Visiting family and friends in northern Wisconsin this holiday season, I'd already spent several weeks with frozen finger and nose tips, relentless gray skies and accumulated December snowfall of over three feet (nearly 1 meter). As an uncout' yout' growing up in the northland, I remember regular "snow days" - when school would be closed not because of snow, but because it was twenty below zero and pipes would freeze ... not only my pipes, but the plumbing in the late 19th century school buildings also. It would be too cold for school!
When winter happens ... even a powerful winter weather "event", like a "Hercules" (or "Ion" now!) ... I don't need to be seeing reporters bundled up, telling me to keep warm, or how to throw snowballs. I don't need to learn the phrase, "polar vortex".
It's WINTER. It's cold out. It snows. Sometimes, it snows hard, fast, wet and sloppy ... Sometimes the cold is subzero, and ice forms. Ice, if you're walking or driving on it, can make you slip and slide, lose control ... Drive safely.
 |
| “Rude Conditions”, ©Jeff Glovsky |
Stay warm this winter. Bundle up. Dress in layers - but don't wear anything too tight, or you might sweat.
Stay indoors if you'd rather, or if you must. Have plenty of food on hand, a flashlight, blankets, and make sure all your prescriptions are filled.
Then read a book. Or better yet, talk to your family. Communicate. Play games ... some charades, a little Monopoly maybe, some Trivial Pursuit. Build a house of cards or play poker, or chess ... But unplug, if you'd like things to thrive while "surviving". If the power goes out, try not to light candles ... It might be romantic, but you might fall asleep and your house might burn down.
Beyond this, don't be afraid to embrace winter: its beauty, its power, its furious grace ... and celebrate what we 'up north' -- in the Northern Hemisphere -- are lucky to know as our holiday season.
 |
| “Celebrate (Life / Work)”, ©Jeff Glovsky |
