They closed schools, shut the subways down, the BQE became a ghost tunnel, and we prepared for the blustering, dumping, blizzard they said it would be.
Instead, the storm surged East and North and we had a slushy few inches.
A let-down, in some ways. I expected a wonderland when I woke up. And, for me, I thought how much better a snow day would be if I didn't have to wake up and be present. If I could read all day in my pajamas, watch a dumb movie on tv.
At least, we thought, Little O could play in the snow, in a way he couldn't in his infancy last year. We bundled him in his space-suit, his hood an astronaut puff. We stepped out the door, caked snow on his mittens, touched it to his cheek, our voices knocking up a register, as always. Snow! Snow! He sat in it, looked at it, had this way of looking back up at us, glum and unimpressed, wondering when we'd take him in from the cold.
Our usually happy baby spent the rest of the day indoors crying, fussing, unhappily being plopped from one uninteresting activity to the next. The mat, his room, the bag of books, the basket of toys, the slinking dog pull-thing, the ride-on push-car with its piano keys. None of it inspiring, apparently.
Yes, we stayed safe. Yes, all was not lost or destroyed. We are lucky. But I feel his restlessness. So much excitement over the white-stuff. Press conferences and news headlines. Empty supermarket shelves. The possibility that the world we know and everything around it could turn white and drift and slope, shake our footing, shape the ground, contour our lives, and we'd see something we'd never really seen before.
I guess the gray and white days will slog along just the same until spring.
Sorry Little O was unimpressed with the Blizzard of 2015, as were the rest of us. He's still a bit too little to really get it. I remember an actual blizzard (2003) where the snow was so deep that when we put our youngest daughter down in it (She was 2 and a half), she hollered, "I'm too wittle! I'm too wittle!" And held up her arms till we rescued her.
ReplyDeleteI suppose weather forecasters have to overpredict--or worst case scenario predict--somewhat, just to get the foolhardy folks to take it seriously. I love snow, and we did get over a foot here (not the three they predicted), but I was very grateful that it turned out to be less serious...that fewer people's lives were at risk from driving conditions or power failures... I'm happy to be let down. :)
ReplyDeleteIt is kind of a let-down when it's not the big event that was expected. But everyone is safer for it, and I love the picture.
ReplyDeleteThis is so true, Melissa. Every storm we've had this winter (here in southeastern PA) has fizzled. Unlike Boston, where my older son lives - he's had three feet of fluffy white stuff so far! He texted me this morning "So much snow!"
ReplyDeleteOh, to be so little and still be disappointed. O must have an old soul :) We used to live in Western WA and didn't get much snow. The first time we got 2-3 inches, the kidlets went out and managed to make a snowman. He lasted only a couple of days, but what fun we had. Snow is truly magical ... but we have turned into total wimps down here in SC.
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