Thunder Snow
Is this not the craziest weather? January was unseasonably
warm. Which I would be all for, except it meant barely any
snow and the snow didn't stick, making for crappy boarding.
Plus snow is magic people. There's just something
about it. So I was hoping for more. Meaning you can
all blame me for last Thursday during the Thunder Snow.
That's what the weather people called it anyways. I
don't know what the eskimos call it. But it was crazy.
It was a blizzard that lasted all day, with precipation going
from large drifting flakes, to sleet, to hail, to rain, and back to
snow. And all the while, the dark sky was thundering loudly
and flashing with lightning. I've never seen a storm quite
like it. On the news, you could watch the storm wash over the
country and note the crazy temperature drops. Some cities were
still hovering around 70 degrees and right on the other side of the
storm, the temperature was only 20 degrees. It dropped 50
degrees F as the clouds swept overhead! Crazy.
So work let us out 15 minutes early, which I ended up not taking anyway
because I love my job that much. But now, with the slow
drivers because of the slippery ice and slush on the roads, my one hour
commute home would surely stretch on into unbearable lengths.
So I decided to stop by my Grandma and Grandpa's house and
shovel their driveway. They had a shovel lying out so I
didn't knock - just started pushing the fluffy stuff around, quickly
realizing the absurdity of my situation. I was still dressed
in my business casual for work... the shiny leather shoes, a
button-down, no hat, leather driving gloves, and a leather coat that
refuses to stay buttoned. I was slipping and sliding and
flapping open and freezing out there for a half an hour, but laughing
the whole time. During the course of my shovelling, the
Thunder Snow continues to change, becoming slushier and stickier.
Again, I don't know the eskimo word for it, but it became the
kind of snow that gets really heavy and when you scoop it up with a
shovel and go to toss it all ahead of you, it sticks to the shovel and
unexpectedly pulls you into the snowbank with the momentum of your own
swooping throw. So with each scrape along the driveway, you
have to bang the shovel on the ground at the end to get the
snow to come off the shovel. It was crazy, is all I'm saying.
Somewhere along the way, my grandmother, the little German one we call
"Oma" who is becoming increasingly and frighteningly forgetful, she
sees me out of her window and then scurries outside all bundled up and
prepared to help me finish. I'm sure she wouldn't take "no
thank you" for an answer and I'm not going to let her help so I tell
her I'll be done in a half hour and I'd really appreciate some tea or
something. And that makes her day. She's the kind
of grandmother that loves cooking for anybody. So once I
finish sliding around in the magic of the Thunder Snow, I step inside
to find some hot tea along with a full banquet feast including roast
lamb, pasta, a bunch of sides and pie a la mode.
This was probably what my grandparents had planned on making for dinner
the next couple days, but nothing makes her happier than to see me
eating, so who am I to deny her the pleasure?
Oh, while I'm telling you all about my virtues and silly good deeds, it's probably a good time to link to my Johari Window. Everyone else is doing it so I am too since I am a sheep.
All you do is pick 5 or 6 words that might possibly describe me in some small way on some planet in some parrallel universe where I had any of these nice qualities.
But to be fair, I should also tell you some of the many reasons for which you should hate me. Like, about that "I love my job that much" statement. It totally wasn't even sarcastic. I actually love what I do and work through lunch for the fun of it and don't like leaving and think all weekend about how I can't wait to get back to work on Monday morning. I know, right? I deserve to be sucker-punched in the throat. Before this job, if someone else were to tell me that, I would want to slap them right in their snotty face.
Oh, and something else... Saturday, the Thunder Snow storm brought on a cold front dropping temeperatures well below freezing - like record breaking -20 degrees F on Friday night - and all the fluffy magic on the ground turned into a big sheet of ice that you could skate on. So what do I do? I go and convince 6 or 7 of my friends to come out snowboarding with me Sunday night! Come on! It'll be fun! Sure all but one of them were beginners and had no idea what it's like to snowboard in freezing, layer-of-ice conditions. One of the young girls with us, just learning how to board for the first time, actually slid down the sheet of ice, under a guardrail fence, over the side of the cliff, tumbling into a thorn bush, lacerating her knee into a a big open wound which bled through her three layers of pants. Was I there to save her? No! Was I even with any of the young newbies I had invited? Teaching them? Or protecting them? No! I was off on the terrain park run, foolishly trying to hit some big jumps and rails and ended up with a nice heavy landing of my skinny knees on the ice, for which I'm sure they will make me pay dearly when I'm old.
So now that I've given you a couple reasons to hate me, why don't you fill out my Nohari Window. The Nohari is the opposite of the Johari. Now you pick 6 of my worst traits. I don't think I'm being a sheep for posting this one because I haven't seen any other bloggers yet have the cojones to post one. But really, I had a waaaaaay easier time picking 6 things about myself that I hate. You should have no problem picking some for me. Just do it real fast and painless. Like ripping off a band-aid. Think of the bandages all those injured kids have to deal with now that I dragged them to their doom on the ice. Or pick some things that you'd guess I might have to work on if only I weren't so perfect and beautiful. See? This getting easier? If not, then just be brutally honest and leave an anonymous name. That page doesn't let me track IP addresses, so I'll never know who put what.
Have fun? Isn't it great telling people what's wrong with them?
Posted by heydomsar
2006-02-21
go back | random brainstorm | go forth
Rachel Ray - 2009-05-03
The cold wind was the reason - 2009-03-02
The Collected Wisdom of Angela Chase - 2009-02-15
All's well that ends well. - 2009-01-07
In the End, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends. - 2008-10-04
