My Retirement, End of 4th Week

Day 25 or so of Retirement and doing OK.

Fear and Snow

Weathermen are terrorists!  They usually look like mild-mannered geeks or are beautiful blond women.  Don't let their appearance fool you.  They are there to cut short your life by years through the spread of fear and anxiety.  Their predictions, even with Doppler (whatever that is), charts, and other weather instruments are going to be either right or wrong - and except for hurricanes and other such possible disasters where people can be evacuated, can we really do anything about it since we have no control of mother nature?

The East Coast has been hit with snow storms about every week since late December.  However, before the winter season started, the weather broadcasters were predicting "how bad" it will be so we can all start worrying about what's to come .  As winter approached, they unleashed their fear campaign, and even if the weather that day was not too bad, they needed to tell us about the next "big one" that was coming soon.  Day by day, they tell us about this imminent disaster. Blood pressures now rise and anxiety takes over.  Then it snows and life as we know it does go on. 

We in the Middle Atlantic states have four seasons, summer when it is hot, autumn when it cools, winter when it is cold with a probability of snow, and spring when it will warm up and may be rainy.  It has been going on for ages.  Why is it big news, why has it become sensational?

I can tell you my hubby loves watching weather reports.  His favorite TV is the weather channel.  Second though is to watch weather patterns on the Internet.  He gets excited over the thought of a bad weather system, the worse, the better.  It might be a male thing.  He looks unkindly at me when I tell him that looking through the window or going out will tell me what the weather is like.   This drives him crazy and that is probably why I say it to him.  It is a female thing. 

Yesterday, the predictions were not quite right and the snow came down 12 hours before expected.  The news programs geared up and it became all about snow, snow, and more snow.  Granted it was a big storm and the area got from 4 to 6" between the hours of 5 am and 2 pm.  I had the TV on and every half hour they showed cars sliding up and down hills.  They showed people shoveling, kids making snowmen, and people complaining that they had never seen the likes of this.  They must have short memories as last year we got 2 or 3 storms of 25".  These broadcasts went on all day and then the 4 o'clock news came on for 2 1/2 half hours showing cars sliding up and down hills, people shoveling, kids making snowmen, and people complaining that they had never seen the likes of this.  At the end of this newscast they said they would return for a one hour special at 7 for another report on the storm.  I think I saw the same Prius sliding on the road going up an embankment and then getting control again at least 5 times.  Overnight we got more snow than the day before and we now have between 9" to 14" on the ground.  It is a beautiful sight, but I say this knowing I do not have to go out and drive in it.  So today the weather reports are constant like yesterday and I just heard the announcer say "more snow on the way"  Oh goody!  I better stock up on meds.