Blowing Snow
by John M. Urban
Winter is here, folks. Snow, cold weather, blistering winds, more snow. Yes, mighty lucky up here in the northern latitudes. We’re a humble people so we don’t want to brag about just how well we have it, but, yes, Mother Nature has once again blessed us with single digit temps and knee deep piles of flakes.
Winter for children is especially wonderful – sledding, snowballs, days off from school. For parents, too. Yes, there’s shoveling, scraping the windshield, and fish tailing turns on the side streets. It’s also good for the economy. We think of it as Mother Nature’s own financial stimulus program with high heating bills, calls to the plumber for frozen pipes, and massive purchases of boots, mittens, and woolen hats. Pretty darn idyllic.
In the last week or so we’ve had somewhere close to two feet come down, which allowed us to glaze-in a good sheet of ice on the roads and sidewalks, followed by another foot-plus of the white stuff today. Without this, we’d be lost. Our doctors would be out of practice in setting broken limbs, Kleenex wouldn’t have the scale of operations to stay in business, and HGTV would crater without the benefit of captive audiences.
Yes, it’s all very grand.
Surprisingly, a few minutes on the Internet shows that our great blessing is minor league compared to some other locales. As much as Southern New England appears to be the new North Pole, there seem to be other areas of this planet graced with even more snow. How lucky are they?
(McKenzie Pass Highway, Oregon)
(Japanese Alps in Honshu, Japan)
(Snow covered house; Lapland, Finland)
The poor souls down in the little latitudes must be jealous as can be. They are probably sitting by the pool right now, ordering-up frozen drinks in a desperate effort to mimic what’s going on up here. Perhaps we should start a collection for those who are stuck in warm weather while they are forced to spend the ends of their days watching the sun set as they dream of escaping to the land of Ariens snow blowers, roof rakes, and ice scrapers.
(Southwest Florida Gulf Coast)
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