REALLY?!
SERIOUSLY?!
Here is where I say this in my best "Crotchety Old Aunt Sue" voice:
When I was a kid....
yep, I'm goin' there!
When I was a kid, it was NORMAL to get 7-8 inches of snow every so often here in Indiana.
And later when I moved to Denver as a very tender 20 something?
FORGET IT!
They kept the metro busses running during the blizzards I witnessed while there!
People strapped on their cross country skis and just trudged onto work.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,237977,00.html
As a Hoosier transplant that was surreal for me - what looked like Alpine mountain men and women loaded for a treacherous mountain passage was just my neighbors getting to work!
In Missouri? Hmmm...
When we first got there winter storms were the norm and did not bother folks that much.
Then little bit by little bit, there were more and more accidents on the roads and more stern warnings at the threat of a few inches of snow.
THEN if it even was going to RAIN there were mad dashes to the stores!
(OK, OK, so the massive flood that wiped out town after town after town along the Mississippi had just occurred not long before, but STILL people! )
That was the 1990's.
I think that was when it all started really changing. I blame it on all the urban sprawl that occurred.
Gotta blame it on SOMETHING- why not urban sprawl?!
That's a term we have not heard in such a long time now isn't it?
URBAN SPRAWL
Sounds like a yuppie yoga class gone bad doesn't it?!
http://yogadork.com/
Real quick- urban sprawl was the unbelievable growth of suburbs and urban areas into the country side.
Black top, concrete, and contrived green spaces were all the signs of PROGRESS.
Along with it was the loss of the adjacent areas to the urban areas.
Traffic jams all over, not just in the inner city any more!
http://blogs.riverfronttimes.com/dailyrft/2010/01/worst_traffic_jams_in_united_states_st_louis_interstate_270.php
You had bears and deer coming to town for lunch all of a sudden.
People were horrified when they encountered REAL rural life living like a messy collage right next and in the midst of their residential neighborhoods and strip malls.
Heat inversions, flooding, and CRIPPLING snow storms of 4 inch accumulations began occurring.
Yuppies and their puppies went crashing in their soccer mom SUVs and mini vans into the medians and into each other as they acted like they were in Pamplona and in the running of the bulls!
http://www.bookespana.com/running-of-the-bulls/
So, just calm down.
Hurrying and rushing won't do anything more than upset you, your family, and other drivers on the road.
Why not just next week, when everything is all melted, go get an extra pack of TP, get some bread and put it in the freezer, stock up on some canned soups, mac and cheese, just anything that will not perish real soon.
You know PREPARE.
You know, it's winter.
Wear a coat, take hat, gloves and scarf - you might need them.
Put a blanket in the back seat of the car.
Wear clean under wear like Mom told you to.
We pretty much have the food stuffs covered here, but we did lack one thing and procured it yesterday night -
LIBRARY BOOKS!
I think I would just keel over if I did not have SOMETHING to read.
Being a bit more prepared just takes a few more minutes of calm thought and calm action.
Don't be THAT guy(or gal)!
You know the one- careening into the grocery parking lot way too fast to get your Doritos and Pepsi, almost flattening the Grannie trying to get her 6 pack of eggs to her car that will hold her for a week - because SHE remembers how to prepare and stretch and make do, even if you don't.
Any way, Crotchety Old Aunt Sue is tired and needs to sit down now.
Here are some pics of the hopeful sprouts from our flower beds this morning that I hope will not get freezer burned in Mother Nature's early March freezer.
He is one of the seven Thomas Jefferson Irises that a good friend of mine was so generous as to share with me last summer.
As she was told, these are from the original stock that Thomas Jefferson brought back from France(?) on a trip and then cultivated at his beloved estate at Monticello. She and her husband were visiting Monticello for their anniversary a few years back and the nursery men were "thinning out" the stock that day and my friend snatched up all she was allowed!
I had babied these 7 bulbs all through last year's drought and planted them here in this location about October.
I am covering them up a bit just to help them get established this spring.
I LOVE it when my two favorite hobbies come together like this - GARDENING and HISTORY!
I think I would have really liked Old Tom.
I like the purely American term that emerged describing him and others like him - The Jeffersonian Farmer.
I think in a way it is somewhat comparable to the English country gentleman, but with the sense of conquest and adventure that the American Spirit gives all of us, even over 200 years later.
Old Tom would NEVER have raced to the store losing his mind over toilet paper.
http://www.history.com/photos/thomas-jefferson/photo3
No, no HE wouldn't have.
But he would have sent one of his SLAVES.
Maybe he and I would NOT have seen eye to eye after all.
Be prepared, do your best, be considerate.
Put your self sufficiency in perspective.
How are you effecting others around you?
Have good day all!
-Suzanna
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