Snowstorm, Schmowstorm

So..um. HI! Yea. Blog. Empty. Hmmmmm.. Must. Fill. Up. Space.

So......... let’s talk about the weather!!! Here in the beautiful DC Metro region we get CRAPPY weather for winter. We are located at some point on the imaginary weather line that means all snow heads north of us, literally to Maryland, and we get what they call a wintry mix: snow, rain, ice, all wrapped into one. Usually Winter in Northern VA is just gray, and rainy, and not even cold enough to brag about.

Now, I happen to enjoy winter. I don’t mind the cold. I hate heat and humidity. Summer is not my season and here it lasts from April through November. Bleeeh.

MMMMM snow is tasty.

Alex standing in his first snow.

So far we have had, ahem, “snow” twice. The first time we had roughly 1 inch, MAYBE 2 inches, but I’m not sure it got that deep. And PANIC ensued! Schools closed, daycares closed the GOVERNMENT shut down! The IQ level of the basic driver plummeted lower than the Dow Jones! My friend Tamara, who grew up outside of Pittsburgh and knows a thing or two about snow, thinks that any person, applying for a drivers license who moved here from any area that never gets snow, be it Florida or South America, must spend, at minimum 2 years living in Buffalo, NY before they are issued a driver’s license. I agree with this requirement.

No need for snowplows when we have Andy and a shovel!

[Digression: for this first snow, as I indicated, panic ensured and no I am not joking. If a terrorist could control the weather, all they’d have to do is make it SNOW on DC and the World’s Most Powerful Nation would come screeching to a halt while someone tries to a) find the snow plow and b) the keys to it and c) also, the sand/salt that they are sure they ordered back in 1969 and have it around here some place]

This silliness prompted Prez. Obama, during some other speechy/press conferency thing to comment, “they don’t close schools in Chicago when it snows” and he meant, when its snows 1 freaking inch. This caused much gnashing of teeth by the good, but high strung people, of the DC Metro area. However, it must be pointed out that HE’S RIGHT!

Join me in a stroll down memory lane. When I was a kid, besides the fact that I walked 10 miles to school, uphill both ways, with nothing but plastic bags on my feet when it snowed, I did actually walk to school. My Junior High School was, according to Google, about 1 mile away from my house (Google says .8 miles). So we walked. Every morning I would start out and as I went I’d met up with other girls in my neighborhood – Loretta and Connie first, Kristine, then Norma. To get to school we crossed, four lanes of traffic on US Highway 30 (Norma lived just on the other side of US 30), with no stoplight or crossing guard. Yes. We did. Sometimes we even looked both ways before we just wandered out into traffic.

I know all about wandering. Here I go now!

One morning my brother and I got up and it had snowed. A lot. I have no recollection of the amount, but suffice it to say it was a lot of snow. I attempted to Google weather from about 1976-78 in Chicago Heights Il but its going to require work that I just don’t feel like doing right now. I do recall the wind chills that day were, COLD, possibly, in negative numbers. However, since school is never cancelled, we got up, got dressed, Mom made breakfast and off we went! It was cold, as I recall, but I don’t recall thinking it was awful. Just cold and I was bundled up. None of my usual walking mates were at their usual spots, but that did not faze me; most mornings we met up, but not all mornings.

I got to US Highway 30 (which was roughly halfway to school) when suddenly I felt a tap on my shoulder and a voice said, “Maria?!?! Maria?!?! What are you doing?” I turned to see Freddie, the newspaper delivery boy, who happened to live up the street from us. “Going to school” I said as if I was just asked the most stupid question in the world. “School has been cancelled!!” said Freddie, “Its 30 below zero!!!” (so he said, its possible he was exaggerating a wee bit- it was indeed cold). Freddie, being the good guy he was, walked me almost all the home. He evidently thought I was a moron and wanted to be sure I actually went home and did not attempt to get to school. When I got home my Mom and my brother were hanging out, probably drinking hot

chocolate.

So, says Alex, this is proof that my parents, well at least my mother, is not so bright eh?!

John had arrived at his high school to find the doors locked, so he came on home. Google says his high school was .2 miles away, so you see why he was home before me. To this day I wonder why no one (ie. my Mom or my brother) ventured out to find me- I’m not sure there was a car available as I recall we only had one and Dad probably took it to work and they, being no fools, probably did not want to venture out in the cold. They probably were already planning a yard sale of my stuff figuring I’d never return from the cold. Not that I am bitter about any of this....

I had some sort of point to this story (besides the one that confirms we were not the brightest bulbs in the lamp back then), but alas, I lost it along the way. Most likely in a snow drift. Oh, yea. Right. Snow. SCHOOLS NEVER closed back in the stone age.

Anyway, we did get some real snow this past Monday (March 2 ish) where it was something like 5 inches of snow and of course on this day, both DC schools and our daycare opened on a two hour delay. Go figure. Every other school district was closed. I kid you not. The federal gov’t was also on a two hour delay. I of course went to work because why not! While the commute was snowy, there was no traffic. It was awesome.

Alex insisted on walking in the snow. He would walk a couple of feet, stop, cry; walk a couple of feet, stop, cry. If you tried to pick him up or tell him we were going inside, he would struggle ferociously and cry and want DOWN NOW! So. I let him wander around in the snow, crying. I am a good mother, yes? We are saving for his therapy.

And now, more pictures of boysies!

This was at the Museum of Natural History. We think Ian smells a fart. Alex is trying to escape.

Ian feeds his hand to an alligator while Alex takes off with the Hope Diamond

A friend's three year old's birthday party. The Smythe boys waiting for cake.

The Smythe boys know how to PAR-TEE..duuuuuuuuuuuudes!

Ian's face says, will you serve the damn cake already? Alex says, yea! and Andy says, I need more beer.

One week after the snowstorm? It was 70 degrees out. sheesh.