The other day I had the news of the Midwest deep freeze for breakfast. Amidst a dumping of snow drifts, motorists found themselves trapped on travel-unfriendly highways. Travelers spent very long hours in airports due to flight cancellations. The TV news showed citizens digging their vehicles out of snow mountains and walking in knee-deep snow right in their own neighborhoods!
The messy frozen weather scenario rang a very familiar bell. A few years ago, the city I call home went through the same blizzard disaster. That day started out fine with clear skies although there had been a heavy snow forecast bordering on blizzard conditions. I went to the office as usual, hoping that it would be just another snowy day, but some time before lunch, the skies turned ominous gray and the snow fell without let-up. The more snow that touched the ground, the worse the day became. Before it could get any worse, our management decided to close shop so that everyone could go home safe.
One of my associates got stranded on the highway and had to check into a hotel. The others made it home although their drives took much longer than usual. I had to take three train rides and waiting for my connecting bus home at the Park-n-Ride almost took forever. I was just glad to be standing under a roof over my head or it could have been worse! The wind chill factor was a killer and if I wasn't all bundled up, I could have frozen to death waiting for the bus. The wait took much longer than usual because the traffic got all messed up in many places. I felt lucky, really lucky, that my bus even showed up! What normally took an hour’s home commute turned into a miserable four. Despite the cold, uncomfortable wait for every ride, I felt grateful that I managed to get home in one piece.
The walk home was another big adventurous hurdle. The snow was up to my knees and walking the one block home was a real drag! Finally, when I saw the roof of my home from the distance, I felt tremendous relief! There was two feet of snow outside my front door. My last memory of the outside world was the sight of my car buried in snow!
The next couple of days held me hostage in my own home. The snow drifts covered all of my doors and windows and I couldn’t even look out. Thank goodness for my home computer, telephone and the television. All three served as my link to the world. I was thankful that despite the horrible weather, power didn’t go out. I could watch the news, email the people in my life, even cook my meals!
Unfortunately, because the blizzard brought havoc to most places that were unpassable, the guys who were responsible for shoveling the neighborhood snow couldn’t come right away. It took them three days to clear the paths and driveways. As I couldn’t open my front door, fearing that the five inch snow that accumulated outside might come in and make a wet mess in my living room, I didn’t know what was going on outside my house. All I could see was the white blanket plastered on all my windows.
It was a total relief when, after a few days, the weather allowed the guys to finally work on clearing my front porch of the heavy snow. The sun came out later that week, melting the snow accumulations and turning the once white pristine snow into splashes of mud. Flooding occurred in many places. Everyone hated the ugly muddy consequence, but I’m sure that all were thankful that the worse was behind us.
Despite the minor inconvenience of having to dodge splashes of muddy waters on the street, it felt beautiful to be able to walk outside and see the movements of life after being stuck in my own home for three days.
Nowadays I always love to say, life is good, even if sometimes we have to deal with bad and nasty weather.
