Dear Friends Who Get Snow
I literally just posted this as a status update on facebook today, but I totally wanted to expand upon it.
To those of you who live in all those states that get crap tons of SNOW on a monthly/weekly/daily basis year round (I'm looking at you Utah!)...Us southerner's get 5" of freaking ICE (okay sometimes it's snow) once in a blue moon. Our cities are hardly equipped to handle this because it doesn't happen every day. I just want to make you aware that we are not complete pansies that duck and cover during some puny snow fall of 1/4-2".
I've lived in North Carolina my entire life, but that doesn't mean that I haven't traveled and seen snow outside of this state. When I was 14 on a family trip out to the western US, we experienced snow on the 4th of July in Wyoming. To me, that was possibly the most radical weather experience...and that says a lot coming from a 30 year old. I lived in Western North Carolina where we got regular drifts of snow every winter and I got really good at driving on winding and twisty snow covered roads. So don't get me wrong, I know how to navigate and be safe in SNOW. The thing is, I moved to Wilmington...a beach town whose last big snow was 4 years ago. We see snow rarely if ever in this town and this year we didn't even get the pleasure of snow. For an entire day sleet fell from the sky when the weathermen reported 5" of snow, we instead got about 3" of Sleet...if you don't know what sleet is I'll tell you, sleet is ice that masquerades as snow because it has a white color when it lays on the ground in big piles...generally you wont notice the difference until you step on it and bust your butt because you weren't prepared for what should have been white and fluffy to actually be a slick sheet of ice.
Okay so now that we've covered the fact that we rarely, if ever, see snow...let's talk preparedness. I got that part down. I keep jugs of water in the floor of my pantry because you literally never know when a disaster may happen. I have a small food storage of beans and canned goods to eat off should it become necessary. But I am actually the exception to the rule...90% of this town doesn't see the point in preparedness (I can blame my Mormon religion for my being on top of it) when they never see snow. Also, why is the State of NC that rarely gets snow going to keep snow plows on call? Nope! That doesn't make sense. And so when they hear that some crazy arctic freeze is heading this way, yeah people freak out a bit and they run to the store like maniacs and buy up all the bread and milk and peanutbutter just in case their power goes out and they have nothing to eat. I personally roll my eyes and dread going to the store for anything during these crises because I don't like being mistaken for one of these loons. BUT, that doesn't mean I don't understand why they are the way they are and it gets really frustrating when we get made fun of by people who have never lived under similar circumstances.
So all you Northern, Midwestern and Western United States dwellers who transplant to our home and have a good laugh at our expense...I've seen how you all act down here during hurricane season, so you've lost your right to make fun. When you manage to survive a single hurricane season without doing the same thing you crack on us of doing during snow season then you can open your mouth ;-) Seriously though, the best thing you can do in any foreign weather situation is make best friends with locals and find out what the actual protocols are. Most of the time they say we're going to get hit with a traumatizing hurricane it heads off somewhere north or south of here and we get some high winds and a little power loss, nothing we can't grin and bear...most people do it while having a massive "hurricane party" and getting totally wasted (not something I've ever experienced but I hear it's a blast).
That said...y'all enjoy your snow the rest of this winter, now that we've met our quota for the next 2-3 years or so, I'm gonna go put on my flip-flops and t-shirt and go enjoy the 60-70 degree weather we're having a mere 2 days after an ice storm....because THIS is what it looks like after Wilmington struggles through a winter storm:
To those of you who live in all those states that get crap tons of SNOW on a monthly/weekly/daily basis year round (I'm looking at you Utah!)...Us southerner's get 5" of freaking ICE (okay sometimes it's snow) once in a blue moon. Our cities are hardly equipped to handle this because it doesn't happen every day. I just want to make you aware that we are not complete pansies that duck and cover during some puny snow fall of 1/4-2".
I've lived in North Carolina my entire life, but that doesn't mean that I haven't traveled and seen snow outside of this state. When I was 14 on a family trip out to the western US, we experienced snow on the 4th of July in Wyoming. To me, that was possibly the most radical weather experience...and that says a lot coming from a 30 year old. I lived in Western North Carolina where we got regular drifts of snow every winter and I got really good at driving on winding and twisty snow covered roads. So don't get me wrong, I know how to navigate and be safe in SNOW. The thing is, I moved to Wilmington...a beach town whose last big snow was 4 years ago. We see snow rarely if ever in this town and this year we didn't even get the pleasure of snow. For an entire day sleet fell from the sky when the weathermen reported 5" of snow, we instead got about 3" of Sleet...if you don't know what sleet is I'll tell you, sleet is ice that masquerades as snow because it has a white color when it lays on the ground in big piles...generally you wont notice the difference until you step on it and bust your butt because you weren't prepared for what should have been white and fluffy to actually be a slick sheet of ice.
So all you Northern, Midwestern and Western United States dwellers who transplant to our home and have a good laugh at our expense...I've seen how you all act down here during hurricane season, so you've lost your right to make fun. When you manage to survive a single hurricane season without doing the same thing you crack on us of doing during snow season then you can open your mouth ;-) Seriously though, the best thing you can do in any foreign weather situation is make best friends with locals and find out what the actual protocols are. Most of the time they say we're going to get hit with a traumatizing hurricane it heads off somewhere north or south of here and we get some high winds and a little power loss, nothing we can't grin and bear...most people do it while having a massive "hurricane party" and getting totally wasted (not something I've ever experienced but I hear it's a blast).
That said...y'all enjoy your snow the rest of this winter, now that we've met our quota for the next 2-3 years or so, I'm gonna go put on my flip-flops and t-shirt and go enjoy the 60-70 degree weather we're having a mere 2 days after an ice storm....because THIS is what it looks like after Wilmington struggles through a winter storm:
Beach photos courtesy of my friend Kelsi's trip to the beach today ;-)
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