Trying again for consistency at the halfway point. I must say that I am glad that January is half over in some ways. It is anywhere from 20 to 28 below zero this morning depending on whose thermometer you believe. Just having the car start is a miracle. Ever since moving to Minnesota way long ago, I have always been sort of amazed by the fact that life even goes on when it gets like this. But it does. Oh, some things are adjusted. School is starting two hours late this morning so the kids don't turn into little Popsicles waiting for their buses, and many of the pre-schools and kindergartens are not meeting at all. Some of the senior programs cancel or delay starts to make it easier on folks, but for the most part it is business as usual and the expectation is that you show up for it.
There is a part of me that has always rankled a bit at that. It feels kind of like a fist-waving "I'll show you who's boss" stupidity that can only lose in the end. I mean when it comes to minus 64 wind chills and white outs versus the human body....duh....it's kind of no contest who wins here. But if you say, "well I think perhaps we should cancel such and such" or "perhaps I will skip this or that" or "I'm not coming in to work today due to the weather" there is a sort of looking askance, sometimes concealed, sometimes not, an attitude that you must not truly be one of us, not tough enough to live here, to play among the real folk of the great North country. I have gone back and forth over the years with how much I give in to that. It was a whole new adjustment again when I moved to the prairie. Driving in my first white-out was sobering. It was, also I hope, my last experience of being able to look up and see perfectly blue sky but not being able to see the end of my hood in front of me. Yeah. I have adopted the position of "just say no" pretty much. If anything that looks even remotely inclement is predicted, I simply don't leave town.
Getting around in town is enough adventure for this chick. I managed to get stuck at the end of the driveway last week. It was another one of those days when it had snowed another three or four....my snow guy hadn't come, the town plow had, I thought I could make the mogul, I was wrong. Fortunately three very nice men, and C who was picking me up to run an errand came to my rescue and we dug a little, pushed a little, rocked a little and spun a little and out I popped. I hope that is my one for the year. Last year's was much worse. It involved a tree, two guys and a winch. The year before I had an off-road incident simply coming back from a church meeting on the other side of town. Life, you see is not dull here in my little world of white.
2 comments:
Lately, I've been thinking that there is something just wrong about the way we ignore the seasonal rhythms. Even working at home, I feel like I should just hibernate on days like this.
Yeah, I agree...sometimes we just need to admit that nature rules, not us...and that's ok.
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