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Friday, December 28, 2012

Winter wonderland, not a news story

I was in the path of the Blizzard 2012. Just typing that makes me laugh my butt off!!! Blizzard 2012 my foot!

First, it was a blizzard. It snowed like mad and we ended up with a foot of snow in less than 12 hours, right here in the capital of Civilization. That's a lot of snow really quickly. I'm not questioning the validness of calling it a Blizzard. I'm more tickled of how it's perceived by the media or by people outside of the state.

I recall storms on the East coast like this, just snow storms, and CNN and other news channels talk about it for days, practically, building it up, creating a logo and some heavy bassed, tragic music or something. Those of us in the Midwest must be made of sturdier stock because while we had closings of businesses and roads, large parts of the state were under a 'state of emergency' our Blizzard of 2012 was over and done with before CNN crews could get here let alone label us "SNOW DISASTER 2012" or some such other nonsense.

We as Midwesterners stay inside, and when given the all clear, we scoop snow, slap some plows on the front of trucks, haul out the salt and do our thing. Our city buses ran 30 minutes last and lot of businesses closed but for the most part, we were still functional. We didn't have to roll up the sidewalks and have a city wide panic. It was snow and a lot of it, not the Apocalypse.

Oh it was all over our statewide news and I did see footage of our city on CNN at the top of the hour so we rated some mention but not round the clock coverage, which is fine with me.

Though it's better than how snow is covered in the Wild West. I don't think anyone even acknowledges snow in the Wild West. We'd get a few feet, every few days, and I don't think it was even mentioned on our local news, other than in the traditional weather forecast.

It's all about perspective, I'm sure. If a foot of snow and gusting 60 mph winds happen in Boston or NYC it's NEWS but here in the Midwest... feh, we'll mention it and move on.

And that cracks me up. I'm always in need of a good giggle!

Maggie


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2 comments:

Jimmie Earl said...

If I remember correctly, when you lived in the Wild West, those with trucks with blades came into your town of 365 people, plowed the snow on the main streets into the middle of the street, making paths where the streets crossed, then when they had time away from the ranches, they came into town with front loaders or Bobcats, and trucks and hauled the snow out of town and dumped it in a ravine somewhere. That, my friends, is the way the "pioneers" do it. Those "fraidy cats" on the East coast came there, settled and stayed. Those of us from the chilly North Sea area, came, visited the East coast, but we wanted more, and adventure. Again, we're from the "pioneer" stock! Go us!!!

Curley said...

I thinks it's the fact that those on the East Coast are told that they should stay indoors till the snow is done and the roads are clear before they try to go again. "Oh, My God!, you mean we can't go anywhere? We have to stay inside?" Whimps!