Thinking Out Loud: The Early Morning Wintertime Blues
Winter makes getting up in the morning a real chore.
It’s a fair guess that something like 75% of those reading these words nationwide hated to get out of the sack this morning. Most for the same reason: Ma Nature is parked right outside their door challenging them to get off their butts and trundle out to meet her head on. Subconsciously, we all know we can’t beat her. All we can do is try to survive until she’s done playing with us or has moved somewhere else.
It’s been a while since we’ve seen a national weather map as nasty as what’s on our screens today. It almost looks as if Ms. Nature doesn’t like politics and decided to screw with Iowa. Unfortunately, she’s decided to include most of the rest of country in her tirade.
Right up front, I must admit that the “we” sprinkled throughout the last paragraph is me feeling for those who are right now under Nature’s thumb. I’m no longer involved in that fight. Most of my life was spent up where any temp above 20 degrees was an indication that it’s okay to be out on our little Farmall 22 plowing snow in our shirt sleeves. However, like so many others, I gave up that fight and headed south. However, in the back of my mind, part of me still lives up where winter can reign supreme. My heart goes out to those with a snow shovel in their hands and drifts most of the way up their front door. For more than 50 years, that was me.
This morning, it was still dark, and I was still in bed, when I got this silly little grin on my face. It wasn’t the Sunday Morning I-don’t-have-any-place-I-have-to-be grin, or the I’m-starting-a-new-student grin. It was a grin I hadn’t seen for a while. However, when I moved to AZ in February, 1992, that grin was an integral part of my life for the first few weeks .
The reason for that grin was that, when I woke up in AZ, I knew I wasn’t going to have to shovel my car out and then jump into the snowbound commuter fracas that much of the US is right now dealing with. I just now glanced at my phone: My old hometown in Nebraska got 15 inches of that white stuff, winds were gusting to 35 mph, and the temp was 17 degrees BELOW zero making for a windchill of minus 37! Grow up in the plains states and you quickly learn what the word “blizzard” actually means. What’s the old saying? “What doesn’t kill you makes you tougher”. Those kinds of conditions actually can kill you and, if you’re not careful, they will. I couldn’t believe my brother-in-law would routinely jump out into that stuff and commute 85 miles each way into Omaha. Gutsy guy! There’s a reason Nebraskans are one of Nebraska’s most numberous exports.
As I sat down just now and started typing, I noted that where I had lived in a very rural part of far north-western NJ, it was a balmy , high-20s, with winds gusting to 40 mph. That’s where my early morning frowns originally came from. During my Jersey days, being awake meant I had to gird myself for commuter combat which, this time of the year, meant 63 miles each way in some of the heaviest, most inconsiderate traffic in the galaxy doing 70-80 mph in snow and slush and all the other pleasantries that northern commuters enjoy.
Today, as I was snuggled down under my blankets, the silly grin warming me, I knew for a fact that a big percentage of the local AZ population around me was wearing the same silly grin. Unfortunately, PHX is the fastest growing big city in the US and a vast majority of that growth is people trying to escape winter. I was far from being the only one waking up and glorying in the fact I didn’t have to worry about getting the driveway clean enough I can get back up it when I come home from work (FYI – my NJ driveway was 260 feet, half 12% grade, the rest 18%! Not the smartest thing I’ve ever done!). Most of the folks, in almost any direction from where I am celebrating desert life this morning, are happy as hell knowing they can jump in their car in shirt sleeves, zip down to the corner for coffee. And they can do so knowing they won’t get stuck in traffic by some idiot going too fast for the conditions, T-boning a truck and bringing traffic to a standstill in both directions.
So, to you folks whom Ma Nature is beating on right now, I feel your pain. However, I just now realized the trio of migrating ducks who seem to have designated our pool as their favorite place to spend the morning, have arrived. They’re beautiful creatures, but at one time, dad had ducks and they raise crapping on everything in sight to a higher art form. See you next week and here’s hoping you’re dug out by then. bd
That had to be a factor, but the fact that between the depression and the fact that a lot of top soil was just blowing around because of the drought, farmers couldn't make it. SoCal industry was growing an jobs were available so it was westward-ho!
bd
The very reason why I have no bad days.
bd