Bombablizzard

I know snow is pretty - until you have to shovel it, trudge through it, be cold from it and when it turns that particularly ugly grey black on city streets, well then it's not so pretty.  I do not see the point of skiing either, though I have been on numerous ski trips and locations - I have mastered the Black Diamond of Ski lounging but not for this girl the Michelin man inspired outfit, Herman Munster shoes and being hurtled down a mountain on what amounts to long toothpicks, after being lifted up the mountain on a cold bar that defies me to keep my center of gravity with the outfit described and my cupcake padded buttocks.  I feel some guilt as the boys would like to go snowboarding or at least attempt it - they are at that age when they still like snow as it means school closings, snowball fights and hot chocolate after sledding.  However, that guilt only extends to thinking about what lovely family friends would like to take them on their trip while I sit at home.

Now that we have established my lack of enthusiasm for the powdery stuff, boy would that have taken on a different meaning in the late 80s say hello to my little friend, I do get a kick out of watching the sheer madness that sets in as the weather forecast starts to call for flurries, to accumulations to blizzard.  

It is a run on water - umm when I lived in NYC I never drank bottled water.   The tap water in NYC is best in the world, taste and quality, and unless you are living in not visiting an apartment in the Tenement museum the pipes should mostly be ok.  However, in the 'burbs though in much closer proximity to that wonderful reservoir that goes to NYC I somehow wound up with this water though tested fine it tasted ewwww.  Brita and stuff will not work - it has a non- NYC water after taste.  So I too of course must make a run on water (am convinced that Poland Spring is my favorite because they probably open a tap somewhere in one of the 5 boroughs and fill these jugs up).  

Then there is of course the need for milk, eggs and bread and other sundries.  I have lived in NY and somewhat remember the blizzard of 1978, well slightly I was 11 and I remember massive mounds of snow that I slid down and made hiding places in with my friends, the black dirt from being pushed into these mounds did not seem to bother any of us - we were 11, school was out, life was good.  I remember the other blizzards that are of course trotted out every time a new one comes near.  Though slightly guilty of over buying I will say I do not go crazy - if I could survive the loss of electricity for over 5 days of Hurricane Sandy, a blizzard hitting here is pretty unlikely to have me eyeballing my husband as a giant turkey leg worthy of Henry VIII.   

I love watching this  - we are New Yorkers, tough, gritty, excellent in bad situations but snow that is our kryptonite.   It brings out the hoarder in all of us even those with small apartments where the 14 rolls of toilet paper now will have to be covered and used as a some sort of bookshelf.  

This one sounds pretty nasty - but I have to remind myself that it is the Northeast, I would never choose to live in Florida and it is winter.  It is not like May and this is happening.  We got off fairly easy this year after last year when it felt like it snowed every other day.  The kids ran out of snow days ... what kind of cruel and evil force deems that children can run out of snow days in this area ? What those 2 extra days would suddenly bump our issues with some schools from bottom of the test scores into the top ???? 

This is the first time in many, many years that I remember them shutting down the subway - that's freaky for a New Yorker  - I mean the thing is underground.  I think we all treat these storms this way partially because as New Yorkers most of us thrive on Type A reactions and to be on the move   - the thought of being home for say more than a day without having to do something, even if it's just cooking said purchased eggs, sends us into slight tremors like an alcoholic heading to Utah.    So as I, and many of peers, prepare to work from home tomorrow (ahh that helps me not have to plan all those other things I will try and fill every other moment with while stuck in house) I say let's do like my favorite meteorologist, Lonnie Quinn, roll up our sleeves and watch it all unfurl.   I always know it's a bad one when he rolls up them sleeves --