Wednesday, January 16, 2008

East Tennessee Nor’easter

I had a moment today, a moment that compelled me to pause, close my eyes and take in the sound of nature. It was the sound of snow falling. It happened in a very unlikely place: the Wal-Mart parking lot. I walked out of the store with my cart full of groceries to find the parking lot almost completely empty. It was quiet enough that I could hear my breath and I could hear the snowflakes hitting every surface: the windshields, the shopping carts, the patches of grass, the asphalt. I strolled to my car overcome with gratitude for the alarmist nature of my fellow East Tennesseeans. They hear the word snow and run for the hills. If so much as a flake falls from the sky the world stops turning, schools close, people start filling bottles with tap water and stuffing canned goods into their fallout shelters. They think I am nuts for doing my grocery shopping in the middle of a Nor'easter.  Their paranoia is my gain.



I spent my teen years in the Midwest and have plenty of experience driving in the snow. The current weather in my neck of the woods hardly qualifies as snow. Every blade of grass is visible under a thin white, wet blanket and there isn't a flake of snow on the road. It's wet. There's no ice. There's not a car in sight. I was standing next to my car when I closed my eyes. I listened to the snow hit every manmade surface and pretended it was hitting the branches of evergreen trees and the forest floor.  I smiled. I couldn't help myself. If only I could count on inclement weather on all of my grocery days. Life would be a lot less stressful.



5 comments:

  1. I was thinking you would have been able to take your kids out and play in it. I know the one time you wrote that they missed that opportunity because you woke up late
    Hope you get enough snow so they could make a snowman. We built 3 already this year

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  2. I will gladly give you some of our Cental Illinois snow from my street that doesn't get plowed! How would you like me to send it?

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  3. If Emily doesn't have enough to satisfy your needs, just let us know, it's been a relatively mild winter up here, and still, too much cold and snow to the power of 12. Sweet Jesus, getting old and cursing the cold weather like my parents did just SUCKS!!!

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  4. This is exactly what happens when it rains in California! Panic ensues and people stay home even if there is a remote threat of rain. As you may know, that's when I do my serious shopping. It's wonderful.

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  5. This is exactly what happens when it rains in California! Panic ensues and people stay home even if there is a remote threat of rain. As you may know, that's when I do my serious shopping. It's wonderful.

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