Baby, it's Bitter Cold Outside!

About 2/3 of the nation is already getting "dumped" on by snow. Winds are rapidly exceeding in speeds. Tonight they are expecting a 3 day storm to hit, spanning all the way from Portland, Maine - across the Midwest and down into Texas! The lower East Coast may experience Hurricane weather while other areas get hit with Tornadoes! It's gonna be one crazy storm!

I used to think a "Blizzard" was all about the snow level. I learned from our own "blizzard" here recently, that it is not the case. Blizzards have more to do with the wind. However, the more severe blizzards usually involve many inches of snow and span more than a day. I think I was around 5 or 6 when I experienced snow so high that it completely buried our cars and front door!

I was used to bitter cold winters, growing up in the Midwest. But since moving here to Utah 14 years ago, I've been a little spoiled with fairly mild winters. "Bitter Cold" was what happened when it got down in the 20's!

But this winter has truly been it's coldest since I've been here. It has been windy, and although we experience inversion here (when the air temp on the ground is warmer than the air above -- so not cold enough to keep the snow on the ground), the temperatures are dropping low each night and the wind is picking up during the day!

It is weird to me to wake up (like this morning) to a 9 degree morning, which feels like -13 because of the wind chill factor, and yet there is hardly any snow! Nonetheless, it is FREEZING!!! BRRRRR!

Wishing all of you stay warm and are stocked up on food and water and flashlights and batteries and toilet paper and........

(So, wait -- How does Global Warming work again? Or Global Climate Change - or whatever it's called?)

It's Snow Use!

I'm not gonna lie... I'm not a fan.

Where Have All The Men Gone?

I was dropping my oldest off at Jr. High the other morning as the snow pounded down around me in massive clumps. At the edge of the school parking lot there is this little dip in the pavement. Just as I am ready to exit, a car pulls away from the curb, right out in front of me. Pleb-Driver! I had to quickly apply the brakes and hope the now-empty van didn't slide. The good news? I didn't slide. The bad news? I was stuck.

Crap! If there was any time I missed having 4-wheel drive, it was now. I put my van in reverse and waited patiently for the brand new Durango behind me to back up a little. I was hoping to get more of a "head start" allowing me to "gun it" from the parking lot. I backed up in the teensy weensy little room the driver behind me allowed. Another Pleb! If she hadn't pulled up so close behind me to begin with, the car behind her wouldn't have pulled up so close, and so on and so forth.

I put my plan in motion and was at least able to make it out to the street. Well...sort of. I was half-way out of the parking lot and half-way into the street. Again. Stuck. I try to move forward. Nothing. I try to move backward. Nothing. What does the lady in the brand-spanking new Durango do? Surely, she'll get out and offer to push, right? Nope! She drives *AROUND* me. Well, she is a lady, I rationalized.

Surely, some MAN will stop and push. Otherwise, I will just continue to sit here, spinning my wheels, blocking both the parking lot AND the street. Nope. Three different men drive by and look at me like, "Hey lady! Do you know you're in the street!" I give a look back, like "No Shoot, Sherlock. How long did it take you to figure that one out?"

So where was my Knight in Shining Armor? Who was going to come to my aid and rescue a Damsel in Distress? Was I gonna have to actually exit the vehicle and flag someone down myself? For Pete's Sake, I hoped not. Afterall, I was in my PJs with no Bra on and hadn't brushed my hair or my teeth. Hey, in my defense, my brilliant plan was just to "quickly drop him off at school" and then head home to get ready for work.

Then an even bigger van pulled over. Guess who jumps out? You got it. A Woman! There you have it - my Knight in Shining Armor was a Woman! Well, certainly not to be outdone, a man in another van pulled over and he jumped out to help push as well. Still, the two of them could not set me free. Then a bus driver pulled his big yellow cheese wagon right in the middle of the street and he jumped out to help. Finally, they were able to rock me free. I yelled a quick "thank you!" from my open window and fled the embarrassing scene just as fast as one would expect a bra-less, bad-breathed psycho dressed in PJs to.

What's happened to men these days? Have we completely lost chivalry in all forms? Have we as women fought for equality for so many years, that men have become numb to their natural "roles"? Yes. I said it. Roles. I do believe that some things should be men's roles; helping Damsels in Distress being one of them. You bring me a man who wants to argue with that and I'll tell him, "I'm happy to trade you. You squeeze out the off-spring and I'll start holding doors open and fixing flats and pushing the bra-less psychos out of the snow."

So, did the men who stopped to help only do so because they couldn't bare to let their species be shown-up by a woman? Or perhaps the three of them came to help because they knew the burden of driving big empty vans or busses. No. Not this time. I think -wait, no -I know by the countenance in their faces that these three stopped because they are genuinely good, decent people. They certainly put those other men who passed me by to shame.

I do believe that there are angels out there among us. Some of the flesh, and some not. And some even to rescue bra-less, bad-breathed psychos in their PJ's driving big vans in the snow.