Snow's What You've Got

Since the weekend, the TV and radio weather reporters have talked about nothing except the big storm that was coming into New York and New Jersey Tuesday night. With dread anticipation, they spoke of snow accumulation, mix of sleet and freezing rain, and--oh DARN it--the worst will come during Wednesday's morning rush hour. They scared this former California resident half to death. It was a day I needed to be in the office, so I sent my boss in L.A. a grim sounding e-mail Tuesday evening saying that I would try my best to be at work the next day.

I woke up Wednesday morning to a soft blanket of two or three inches of snow. According to the radio, on what they call a news station, you would have thought nothing was happening in the world except this weather. Financial crisis, war in Iraq, Israel and Gaza be damned; it's SNOWING. In New York. In January. Who'd have thought it?

My bus arrived at the stop a few minutes behind schedule. The speed limit on the New Jersey Turnpike was reduced to 35 m.p.h., so everyone drove slowly and cautiously, for a change. I got to the office no more than half an hour late. When I spoke to my boss, I apologized rather sheepishly for all the drama about the weather. He said that it had been raining in L.A. off and on this week, and the weather commentators there had also been gasping their way through the reports. Flooding! Possibility of mudslides! Oh, yeah, now I remember. They do it there, too.

I guess they need to have a hook to keep people watching and listening, but it reminds me of some lines by singer/songwriter Ferron: "It's just human nature/it's cold or it's hot/but if it's snowing in Brooklyn/I'd say snow's what you've got" Weather can be spectacular, but more often, it's just the way it is. Quit getting hysterical about it. I'm going to.