I’m suffering from wanderlust lately. I have this desire to just…go. I want to jump in my car, hop on a plane, follow the sun. It must be this historic winter storm that’s supposed to arrive within hours. It’s amazing what the media can do, isn’t it? Remember the big Earthquake prediction back in December of 1990? A self-professed climatologist named Iben Browning predicted that an earthquake measuring somewhere between 6.5 and 7.5 would occur in the New Madrid region of the Central United States. Here in St. Louis, earthquake kits were selling like hot cakes. It was a media frenzy. I was a freshman in college, and I actually stayed home from school that day, because I’d had a dream the night before that I was stopped in traffic on the highway, under a viaduct, when the earthquake hit.
December 3rd came and went. No earthquake. In fact the entire week passed without a single incident. I felt like a fool. I’m sure I wasn’t alone. And now the media is telling us that this is the biggest storm in almost 30 years. They’re using words like “catastrophic” and urging us to stay at home. Early tonight I flipped on the Weather Channel. A reporter up in Chicago was standing on the side of a busy highway, not a snowflake in sight, gripping his mic like an addict. “Do not go out,” he warned. “Seriously folks, we’re out here tonight trying to save your life.”
Really? I’ll admit, the idea of losing power in this cold does give me an extra chill, but I refuse to run screaming to the nearest grocery store (besides I’ve got plenty of bread, milk and eggs). This afternoon, I drove to my regular 4:45 boot camp class. Picked up a pizza on the way home, and ran a few errands after dinner. No catastrophes. I appreciate the media giving us a heads up so that we can prepare, but this is a little ridiculous.
My kids are excited, as I was during the big winter storm of ’82. Back then, a bunch of us kids took orders from the neighbors and walked with our dads to the grocery store, pulling a sled of hot cocoa, milk and bread back home. It was a memory I’ll never forgot. Two weeks of sledding, snowmen, snow forts, and no school.
As I write this, my phone just rang…it was Parkway School District. No school for my kids tomorrow. Remember those days? I’m thinking about the projects I will still need to work on from home, and the phone interview I have with a PR firm down South for a Freelance project I’m working on.
But I digress. I think I’ll allow myself to sleep in just a little later, make coffee in the 12-cup pot, instead of the quickie 4-cup pot I use on weekdays to fill my commuter mug. And maybe make French toast with all the bread, milk and eggs in the fridge.
Stay warm! Here’s hoping I don’t have to eat my words!
I remember the December 3, 1990 debacle well. I was taking graduate classes at UMSL and we begged the professor to cancel class or let us out early. To his credit, he did neither. I was also principal of a Catholic elementary school at the time and parents angrily demanded that we stockpile water and food just in case. The pastor was adamant in his refusal to put money into this project and we deflected the furious letters and comments for several weeks. This same pastor once told me not to ever change plans based on a prediction. He was absolutely correct! The weather is what it is. We will all live through snow, rain, sleet, ice, wind, and in a few months we will be complaining about how hot and humid St. Louis is in the summer. Take heart...the ground hog did not see his shadow:)
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