And with that segue, to the subject of this post - winter weather. For those of you who live, or have lived, where it really snows as a usual occurrence, you really need to view a TV clip from a Portland station. You would think that we were going to get several feet and become stranded when a few flakes fall. The local Fox station titles their coverage Storm Team 12 and they post a reporter on the overpass at about a 1000 ft. elevation and report on the individual flakes they see - sending the city into pandemonium.
The schools are closed. The tire stores are inundated with folks buying chains and studded tires prior to rushing the grocery for stores of survival provisions. That part is just goofy, but the roads are just plain frustrating. We get snow just about every year, yet it is as if every driver just came to the mainland from some tropical locale and are seeing and driving in the white stuff for the first time. They slip, slide, crash, and just go nuts! They drive like it is opposite day - slam on the brakes, turn away from the slide, and all while they move at 5 mph.
I now use the term "Storm Team 12" to describe any hype perpetrated for effect. You see it on the news, you see it in advertising (especially for legal ads), and we all have friends or co-workers who have gone beyond exaggeration.
You don't have a generator, do you?!? Have you replaced all flashlight batteries? Stocked up on candlesand canned goods? Dusted off those oil lamps? Get out the hatchet, Ma! A doozy's comin' and we need wood!
ReplyDeleteAn inch of snow is NO LAUGHING MATTER, Jim. I'm shocked at your irresponsible cavalier attitude. Someone might slip on their snow-dusted driveway, and then WHERE WOULD WE BE? (Says your utah-dwelling daughter who's too lazy to track down her ice scraper and instead uses a credit card to scrape ice off her windshield. She knows where the candles are kept, though. Just in case!)
As long as they don't use the words "Arctic Blast" in these reports, I'll let it slip with just an eye-roll. (Tee hee - "let it slip"? How ironic!) But really - one or two flakes and mass panic ensues, I get frantic calls from the East Coast inquiring as to our welfare, and even when I say, "Nope, not a flake out! The rain chased the patches of white away this morning," I get worried comments like, "Well, weather.com tells a different story."
ReplyDeleteOkay. But that's the internet and I'm standing RIGHT HERE next to the window and LOOKING AT the weather RIGHT NOW. Sighhhhh.
Well darn, the was it is showing on TV, I was looking forward to opening the door and seeing all of you "float in". Seriously Im glad to see that they are exaggerating a bit. I know what you mean Karen it is like when it rains here in the desert everyone drives like their brains are washed away!
ReplyDelete