February 1st, 2005 1:53 pm
I don’t know how I manage it but I’ve always lived right near the line: the line on the map that divides those that get snow and those that get rain. Yet again, we are looking at snow/rain mix tomorrow (2/2/2005) evening. Those to the north and west of the line are likely to get a bunch of snow. Those to the south and east will get rain. Of course, the line moves around a bit so that we never know exactly what we will get.
The result of living near the line is that the weathermen always get it wrong – saying we will get rain and we get a foot of snow, saying it will snow and we get rain or a little ice, or that we’ll get a dusting and traffic grinds to a halt, etc. I’ve given up believing what they say. The only thing you can do is plan for the worse and hope for the best. We keep blankets in the trunk of the car in case we get stuck, keep rock salt and a shovel at hand in case we need to dig out, we even have a generator in the shed and some gas in case of the worst. I have a bunch of wood cut in the back yard that I can burn in our fireplace. I can cook on the gas grill or on the fire if I need. We have shelf milk and canned food so we don’t have to do the “bread and milk” run. If it were just cold, it would not be so bad but we also seem to be near another line – the line that hurricanes like to come inland along (but that is another story).
So far, we’ve not had to go to those extremes. I hope we won’t. But my old Scoutmaster will be proud – “Be prepared!”