Bread and Milk Will See Us Through

The bad weather persists. For some this is a very serious issue. However, there are those of us who look out our windows and wonder just what the weather gods are up to and why all the humans in charge of making decisions can’t be supplied with better information. I’m assuming the humans are doing the best they can and erring on the side of caution, but it has seemed a bit excessive of late.

snowday01222014This is a picture of what it looked like at about 8 a.m. when my children should have been at school; however, a snow day had been called and school canceled. I promise you the roads looked clear, but I’ll grant that there may have been black ice patches best to be avoided.

The Polar Vortex earlier this month had caused two hour delays in my area (Greensboro, NC for those interested) because of the extreme cold. It was deemed best not to risk children getting frost bitten as they waited for the school buses. This is a real concern as not every child has proper winter gear for such temperatures. Typically our winter days begin cold and warm up as the day goes on, and some of the layers one begins the day in become a burden to carry by the end.

Sometimes inclement weather results in delays and closures because of the risk of traffic accidents. I’m sure you’ve seen plenty of roadway collision videos and heard the stories. They really are everywhere, but here in North Carolina we take a particular perverse pride in complaining about the bad driving when the weather turns bad. Again it can be largely attributed to the fact that we just don’t get much practice driving under really bad conditions, though there are some road warriors who just don’t think they need to drive cautiously. They would try to speed ten miles over the speed limit in a hurricane, and probably have, which they take as a sign of their supreme skill rather than acknowledging the Divine hand that for some reason saw fit to protect them in such a calamitous moment.

One thing we here in NC are particularly accustomed to (as I imagine those in other parts are as well) is the strange phenomenon of cleaning out the store of bread and milk when bad weather is reportedly on the way. Hurricane season requires near constant restocking of these items, so you can imagine what it’s like when we hear that snow is imminent.

To be honest, I’m not really sure why the emphasis is on bread and milk, but it can be kind of nice sitting at home looking out the window at the dusting of frost that stopped the city drinking homemade hot chocolate (made with that milk) and eating cinnamon sugar toast (made with that bread) with the kids.

 

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