By now I'm sure most if not all of you have heard about what's going on in Buffalo (also why the blog is a day late..I've been following my newsfeeds the last few days and lost track of what day it actually is). For those that follow me regularly, you know that I'm originally from the land of Hot Wings and snow. This weather is NOT typical. Typically we'll get 8' in a year. From what I understand based on my Facebook newsfeed, and the news, they got all 8' in less than 48 hours. All joking aside it is scary to have that happen. There's already been a handful of deaths related to the weather, and I'm sure once they get things cleared they'll find more based on the number of cars that were absolutely buried up there. A few roofs have already collapsed, and now the kicker. They're expecting warmer temperatures and rain the next few days...which means that for as heavy as that snow already is, it's about to get heavier. And as that snow starts to melt, all that water...well...it has to go somewhere.
On the lighter side, most people are having a pretty good sense of humor about it. My friend aka Trixi Firecracker has had her Instagram photos of her and her dad posted in various news outlets including Yahoo News, The Washington Post, and there was another one that I'm forgetting right now. Her favorite hashtag? #TellElsaToQuitIt.
My dad is hunkered down with my step-mother and his Facebook feed, consists primarily of screenshots of Jack Nicholson in The Shining.
I've had a few friends post photos from the middle of streets that normally traffic would be far too dangerous to get in the middle of.
Overall though, as much as part of me would love to be up there and experience it...I'm really glad I'm not. The trailer we lived in wasn't all that great in the first place. I can only imagine how cold it would be right now, not to mention how scared we would be of the roof collapsing. Given that we have our son, who has only seen the few inches we got down here last year, other than the few feet we got when we still lived in NY when he was a baby. I wouldn't want to put him through what they got up there this past week.
Most of my friends are taking it in stride, as they are inclined to do. I've seen Frozen references, White Wall/Game of Thrones references, The Shining. I do know however that as much as they are enjoying the unexpected time off...most of them are also silently ticking off the hours not worked and doing those calculations. Then there are folks like my step-mother who gets stir crazy very easily, and I just received word that the roof where she works just collapsed.
What gets me, is that in some ways I feel like I never left. When I wake up in the morning, I generally watch the weather report. Since Tuesday I turn on the tv, and see a map of Buffalo, instead of Charlotte. I listen to the radio on the way into the Festival...and I hear the Radio DJ's talking about the Bills Game, and the looting of the Doritos truck.
The first day I was watching my Facebook Feed and listening to the news to the point that I didn't want to go outside and go out in to it. I had to remind myself to open the window blinds and see that I wasn't buried in snow.
For any of my friends back North who actually read this: Stay Safe, Stay Warm.
For any of my followers down here: Stay Safe, Stay Warm...and be glad you don't have to shovel.