Hello from frozen Indiana! I've only been home about three weeks, but I miss the Pacific Northwest (and my family) immensely! Why? When I got here, the temperatures crashed to 0 degrees and below for the new year. All one can do in a case like this is prepare for the worst and pray that the power stays on.
I decided to write to you on my blog rather than clog up the Bothell Community Facebook site with my blather. I spent so much time posting on the Bothell site about the differences between life in the Midwest and life in the PNW, I thought I would put some perspective on some of what I have concluded about both. As I found out, many of you have ties in the MW, but just as many of you don't. Want to know what winter is like in Hoosierland, O ye who live where snowfall only averages four inches per year? Let me count the ways!
You have the ocean, Puget Sound, and two mountain ranges that dictate your weather. Generally, it doesn't get too hot in the summer or too cold in the winter where you are. Here on the plains, however, we only have Lake Michigan to the north that actually affects our weather. ("Lake effect snow" is a constant for folks in our northern counties.) Beyond that, nothing stands between us and Mother Nature in all her brutal glory. We don't have mudslides because we don't have hills. We don't have wildfires because we don't get that dry. We don't have earthquakes, so no tsunamis. We don't have hurricanes because we are inland. What we do have, however, are thunderstorms and tornadoes in the summer, and snow and/or ice storms in the winter. (In all of my 70 years, I have never experienced a tornado. Close, but no cigar.)
Snow and/or ice storms can be quite crippling. Schools put potential "snow days" into their calendars. Businesses do the best they can to stay open, however difficult that may be. So how does the average person/family get by? We have to have a strategy! Some of you may not have thought about this, but here is my take on winter strategies:
The minute the last autumn leaf has been raked or blown, it's time to prepare for the next season. Find the snow shovel. Buy some ice melt crystals to have on hand. Have two ice scraper/brushes--one to be kept in the car, and one to stash in the house. (Because, like umbrellas, if you need it one place, it will be in the other!) Dig out the gloves and the hats and the boots. Change the furnace filters and have a furnace tune-up. Establish an external source of heat if your water pipes are at risk of freezing. Stock up on batteries for flashlights, etc.
At the first forecast of a snow/ice storm, take stock two days in advance. Most people can dig themselves out in two days or so...so how long can you and your family survive on what you have on hand without having to make a mad dash out? Alcohol? Cigarettes? Milk? Bread? Ingredients with which to cook? Things that the kids will ask for only because they know you can't just rush out and get?
When the snow falls, shovel it soon. Even dry snow will melt on the surface to make a crust that is harder to shovel. If you are lucky, as I am, and your town plows your street often and well, what they DON'T do is come back to dig out the ridge of snow that they push up at the end of your driveway! Clear it now because, in a few days, it will freeze into an impenetrable crust...and God help you if there is another snowfall on top of it. The closest you can come to pavement, the quicker the stuff will melt. My street is actually dry. My driveway? Not so much...
Speaking of shoveling, the temptation is just to make a path through it all. Resist! Clear it as far back as you can because the next freeze and the next snowfall will narrow your path even further. And so it goes.
Remember how I commented about the lack of umbrellas when I was in the PNW, and how natives seem to take the attitude that "this is our weather, so live with it?" Interestingly, I have seen some of that same sentiment here at home. People who complain about the snow, cold, and ice are told, "It's winter in Indiana. What do you expect?" It doesn't stop the complaining, but I get it. I really do.
Our latest storm started Thursday night after a day of almost 60-degrees, with rain, which then turned to freezing rain, then sleet, then snow. What resulted was stuff that looked white and fluffy but was actually just a crust of ice. It wasn't much precip. Maybe an inch or slightly more. My neighbor, God bless him, came over and blew a path to my door. I went out this afternoon to dig out my car because the sun was shining brightly and the radiance of Ol' Sol makes a huge difference. I got the job done, with some effort. I even ventured out to the store. Aren't you proud of me??
We have 1" to 3" of new snow on the way Sunday into Monday. I'm ready as long as the power stays on. Such is life in the Midwest. We all know that spring and summer will show up, eventually. Like you who endure the rainy season in the PNW, Midwesterners know that this is just something to endure. To be honest, I hate it because I am somewhat incapacitated, but I can't think of anywhere that doesn't have its challenges.
Thanks to you all for your moral support and helping to make an old lady feel useful! Here we are at the Ides of January, and I'm still alive and kicking!
Peg
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