The St. Bernard Gets A Day Off

As usual, I am writing this on Sunday evening to post in the wee hours of Monday.

Earlier this evening I called my mother, who lives near us, to chat. We had both spent the day preparing for the day-long blizzard that Mother Nature is scheduled to hold here on Monday into Tuesday.

Now we wait.

When I was a kid, the guy on the radio told us that we could expect snow, and that was about it. Now we get so many details it's hard to keep them straight. We get the minimum and maximum wind speeds, the range of snowfall amounts, the daytime temperature, the nighttime temperature, the temperature with wind chill factored in, the height of storm surges for those living near water, the barometer readings ...

Knowing all of that in advance has both good and bad points.

We can choose not to travel, and avoid getting caught in whiteout conditions on the highway. We can make sure we have bread and milk (and chocolate!) so we aren't inconvenienced by a shortage. We have time to check the batteries in our flashlights, top up our gas tanks in our vehicles, and write blog posts that will publish themselves at the time of our bidding.

On the other hand, the waiting is nerve-wracking. Will we lose power? If so, for how long? How cold are we going to be by the time it comes back on? How much snow will we need to move before we can free our cars from their snowy prisons, and how long will it take the town to make our street passable? When will we be able to get to our places of work and how far behind will we be when we get there? For those who get cabin fever easily (Hi, Mom!), the question is usually, when will we be able to get out and see other human beings again?

Of course, it's much worse for first responders and those who work in critical services such as hospital services, nursing homes, and power companies. They must find a way to get to work and be prepared to stay there if they can't safely travel home at the end of their shift. Police and paramedics will be bracing for accidents and emergencies, because some people will insist on driving and some of those will go off the road and need rescued, or get stuck in heavy snow and need rescued (so they don't either freeze to death or die of carbon monoxide poisoning when they run their vehicles to keep from freezing to death). Women may need to birth a baby, people may have heart attacks or strokes or otherwise become critically ill without regard for the weather, and need transported to the hospital. Snow plow drivers and salt truck operators and tow truck owners will be working long shifts in low-vision conditions.

I'll be glad when this storm is over.

According to the forecast, we're going to have one whole day to dig out before the next one hits.

P. S.  Our most recent snowstorm was last Friday (three days ago).
P. P. S.  If I'm not online to publish or reply to comments, you'll know why.
P. P. P. S.  I don't need a St. Bernard dog this time around; I made sure to buy my storm chocolate when I got groceries!

One storm ago

Two storms ago

Three storms ago

Four storms ago

You get the idea :)

Update: It is now 2 p.m. Monday, the storm has just reached us and is moving more slowly than predicted, which means higher accumulations of snow ... YAY!