Confessions of a Weather Weenie

It's hard for me to admit this, but I am a winter weather weenie.

There! I feel much better.

At least until the ridicule and heckling from all my friends and family who still live in the Frozen North starts rolling in.

I never used to be a wimp about a little snow, but boy have things changed.

You see, I grew up in a place where two feet of snow in one storm was not remarkable, and it didn't bring everything to a screeching halt. Then I moved south. Not way south, but far enough that 8 inches of snow is a major snowstorm. Far enough that I took my daughter out to play in the snow and you could see the grass through our snow angels.

We are getting our second round of snow in less than a week. I can barely bring myself to admit that the 5-9 inches we're getting today made me rethink taking the boys to the doctor's office for their checkup today.

Before the heckling begins I just want to point out a few important things:

1. Most people here do not know how to drive in snow. The other drivers tend to be a greater danger than the road conditions.

2. We don't have the snow removal equipment to clean much more than the major thoroughfares, which leaves a large portion of the roads untouched.

3. What in the world would I do if I got stranded with three 16-month-olds in the car? We can't reasonably walk across a parking lot together yet, and while our stroller is built for off-roading, it doesn't come with runners and a sled dog. The mere idea of being trapped for hours with three boys who would soon be bored and hungry and wailing is enough to send me screaming to the funny farm.

Jeff and I love to tell the story about our second winter here. We were expecting 14 inches of snow, and despite the panicked look in every newscaster's eyes, the idea of that as a major winter storm never even registered with us. Fourteen inches? We'd be driving to work tomorrow. Ha! How little we knew.

The storm hit New Year's Day. On New Year's Eve we were in the grocery store buying alcohol. Everyone around us had carts piled full of toilet paper, milk and bread. I wondered what the heck kind of New Year's parties people had around here. I even asked the cashier what was going on. She looked at me like I had two heads and said, "Honey, we're expecting more than a foot of snow. You won't be able to get out for days."

We still didn't believe it, but she was right. We didn't see a snowplow for five days. The only getting out we did was to join our neighbors, who hailed from Utah, in sledding down the big, unplowed hill that was our street while the rest of the neighbors peered out from their warm houses and called us crazy. 

Over time, we've adapted, and slowly, ever so slowly, I have become a complete winter weather weenie. Although I must admit having three little ones to contend with is pretty good justification for staying put. Maybe it's even smart.

Fortunately, before I had to admit to my weather wimpiness and call the doctor's office, they called me. "Would you mind rescheduling this afternoon's appointment? You know the weather is going to be pretty bad."

Oh, sure. No problem.

At least now I can blame my wimping out on them!

© Trippin' Mama 2010