We weren't having a winter at all (Ou sont les neiges d'antan, you might well ask), and now we're buried in a blizzard. 12 to 24 inches predicted -- "among the top 10 snowstorms in city history." Hundreds of flights cancelled, New Jersey Transit buses suspended. We're not going out anyway, so we can afford to jump up and down and cheer that at long last it's doing what it's supposed to do in February. It's another story for the people running the plows and salt trucks, and the people worrying about their commute and schools tomorrow. (The kids are happy already. I hope they're planning to build snow forts and not play videogames.) I wonder if we'll see people cross-country skiing in the streets, as in the snowstorms of yore.
NBC morning anchorwoman: "We're staying live with our snow coverage all morning."
UPDATE: I'm missing Lucky terribly this morning. We would have gone on the roof together and played in the snow. I'd have thrown a "snow mouse" for him and he'd have pounced with mystified delight on the hole where it disappeared, white into white. He would've disappeared himself: the "snow coverage" up there is knee deep.
I tried toting Buzzy up there; it's part of his heritage. (I'll never forget my WASP brother-in-law once saying to a then two-year-old niece: "Eat your bagel, Sara, it's part of your heritage.") He's got feathery snowshoes on his feet, for heaven's sake. But he just looked at me like, "Are you nuts??" Hustled down the roof stairs, and spent the next half-hour indignantly washing himself. "Well, I never." And Dito took one look at the snow and moaned like he was being tortured.
I guess I'll just have to roll in the snow all by myself.
Time to head back South?
Posted by: Winston | February 12, 2006 at 09:07 AM
Actually . . . I love this.
Posted by: amba | February 12, 2006 at 09:54 AM
I love snow.
Posted by: nappy40 | February 12, 2006 at 12:33 PM
Too bad it'll be crusted with dirt by tomorrow morning. (At least it's gonna be cold tonight, so it won't also melt and get really yucky.)
Posted by: amba | February 12, 2006 at 12:46 PM
It's actually snowing down here a bit today. Just a bit, but it's nice.
I miss the snow, and the frozen landscapes of NY in winter. Not enough to want to live up North again. But it had a kind of beauty you never see down here.
Posted by: Tom Strong | February 12, 2006 at 01:50 PM
What year did you leave here? We haven't had much in the way of "frozen landscapes" for quite a few years. Oh, maybe one good snowstorm a winter. But it doesn't stick. Global warming is a reality here. Back in the '70s (in your early days) we used to be buried in snow all winter.
Posted by: amba | February 12, 2006 at 02:47 PM
My last winter in NY was 99 - 00, but before that it was 93 - 94. The Hudson seemed to freeze almost every year back then.
Posted by: Tom Strong | February 12, 2006 at 05:16 PM