Information

[stonelion]

As all of New England knows, there are some things you simply have to do to prepare for big snow:

1. Go to the supermarket. Even if you don't need anything you should still go. Don't ask me why but you can almost gauge how bad the storm is going to be by how many people are at the market. If there's a cop directing traffic in the parking lot it is going to be a really BIG storm - never mind what the weather people are saying. And look at what people are stocking up on. I have never had a zip loc bag emergency in my life but apparently you need lots of them if you are going to be in the house all day.
   
2. Fill your car with gas. Again, no idea why. Presumably so you can go somewhere which you will not be doing because the local news people are going to be telling you 24x7 to stay off the roads. And by the way THEY will be on the roads - standing on the SIDE of the roads, reporting how BAD it is to be out on the roads. They will also be broadcasting from down the beach where you should NEVER GO during a northeaster unless you are a newscaster in which case you have some kind of weird weather immunity.
   
3. Do all your laundry - wash and dry. If the power goes out you want to have clean, dry clothes.
   
4. Go to the library and get a stack of books. Chances are if you have power, someone in the house is going to be glued to the local news which will be running Storm Coverage all day so you will need something quiet to do in another room. No idea why we need all day coverage. It's snowing. It will snow some more. Then it will be over. Eventually the sun will come out and pretty soon we will do this again. However the news stations are pulling in all of their meteorologists so that we can have hot and cold running tag team weather forecasting. C'mon people, it's just not that complicated. Especially when you consider that the people without power aren't even watching.

That's basically it in a nutshell. There are those among us who remember the Blizzard of '78 which was a truly humongous storm. People were stranded on the highway and made their way to nearby houses where perfect strangers took them in and fed them. We had about 24" of snow already on the ground and then another three feet fell in like 8 seconds. When the snow cleared we still weren't allowed on the roads for several days. Total strangers spoke to each other in the street (I know, but a big deal here in New England) and people went cross country skiing on the streets of downtown Boston. Nine months later a LOT of babies were born.


But this is just one to two feet. No big.

[writerlady]

Ha! I was 17 years old, and I walked in that - like 20 miles. The only thing on the road was a snowplow. I'll never forget it. I was wearing sneakers. This won't be like that, but we are supposed to get 12 - 24 inches overnight tonight. (I didn't get gas or groceries).

[kittymomma]

ROFL!!!! This is too funny----and SOOOOO true!!!!! What about the channels that NAME each snow storm!?


Sadly, I had to send DH into the store---just to get lettuce for our dinner tonite! He said it appeared there was a lettuce emergency in among the bread, OJ, milk---and zip loc emergencies! LOL



I LOOOOVe your line about NE talking to total strangers. We moved here from Buffalo, NY 15 years ago and still can't get used to how people just don't talk to each other....kinda lonely to be honest! All of my friends here are also transplants---only one friend is a native New Englander....

[stonelion]

Kittymomma:
Where is here? (or should I say "heah") Are you in New England now? Yah I LOVE the names. So ominous: "BLIZZARD OF 2010" "HOLIDAY BLIZZARD" "CHRISTMAS BLIZZARD". And who whips up the instant graphics and logos? And I LOVE LOVE LOVE when they aren't on the air all day and they interrupt a good football game with BREAKING NEWS - wait for it - IT'S SNOWING! NO! REALLY?! I HAVE NO WINDOWS IN MY HOUSE. THAT IS A REAL SHOCKAH!

[ScrapGoo]

Ha! SO true. I had to run out tonight for a few (non-snow related!) things and the milk was GONE. Seriously, why?? Are people planning on drinking gallons of milk? If you lose power will you just plunk your milk in a snow bank? Coffee, hot chocolate... booze... those I understand. But we're New Englanders. If you run out of milk just suck it up, put your big girl panties on, throw the cahhh in 4WD and go to the store.

Buncha sissies.

Signed,
A born and raised Mainer

[o1mommy]

Too funny but yet so true. I avoided the stores like the plague today. Well except of course AC Moores. I needed to stock up on those Photo boxes for $2. Organizing pics to get scrapping is in order for this kind of weather. I'm not worrying about bread. Heck theres always ice cream inthe freezer.

[kittymomma]

Kittymomma:
Where is here? (or should I say "heah") Are you in New England now? Yah I LOVE the names. So ominous: "BLIZZARD OF 2010" "HOLIDAY BLIZZARD" "CHRISTMAS BLIZZARD". And who whips up the instant graphics and logos? And I LOVE LOVE LOVE when they aren't on the air all day and they interrupt a good football game with BREAKING NEWS - wait for it - IT'S SNOWING! NO! REALLY?! I HAVE NO WINDOWS IN MY HOUSE. THAT IS A REAL SHOCKAH!

Yes, I am in CT. One of our local news stations gives each storm a name.. this one is Winter Storm Benedict! I know it is crazy--but when I was teaching--I did love to get up at 4 am just to see my school's name scroll across the screen! LOL---just try getting me up that early on a regular school day!

[croppinmama]

So funny...you are right, that's how it's done in New England, lol. I went to the store to do my regular shopping and people were buying up so much bottled water. My kid's high school is next to our town library...there was a traffic jam because there were no parking spaces in the library.


I remember that storm in 78, I was 12 yrs old in the back seat of my mom's car on the MA pike. To this day I have an emergency kit in my trunk, never had to use it, but it's there. My oldest daughter got her first car a few months ago and that's what she got for Christmas was an emergency kit and a tool to cut through her seat belt....she was thrilled (not), hee hee.

I laughed out loud when I read why people feel the need to have the tv on all day. That's what my husband does. He calls it his "command center". He has his lap top, tv and police scanner on all at the same time while on the phone with everybody in his family. It drives me up the wall...it's snow people, we get it every winter here in New England!!!


Thanks for making me laugh after a long day

[ScrapGoo]

Girls, we seriously need to plan a NE Cherry crop!

[MimaScraps/Lori]

You girls stay warm and cozy and safe!!!

[Wyknotwyme]

I remember the blizzrd of "78... lots of shoveling & sledding


I didn't have to go to the store, normal shopping was done on Saturday, Car gassed on Sunday evening for the week.



Still can't figure out why the rush, they were predicting the storm over the weekend.......

[Celticrose]

What I want to know is why people need to buy shovels when this is the 3rd or 4th snowfall of the season...what happened to the shovel they had or why didn't they already have one?

[letumom]

Hmmm down south....we have some similar weather preparation rules.


We do this when we MIGHT get ice, or if you live inland, when major thunderstorms with tornados are forecasted, which tend to cause MAJOR flooding.



Go to the grocery store, buy EVERYTHING that you never buy during regular weather. Clean the shelves off. Bottled Water usually goes first.



Get gas for the boat parked in the garage or driveway. If the water level gets too high when it thunderbooms, you need a way to get to higher ground.



Be sure to get charcoal or gas for the barby. If the electricity goes out for a long period of time, due to the ice (or tornadoes or hurricanes) pulling over trees on powerlines, you'll want to round up all the neighbors together for a block party in the cul-de-saq...and empty the freezer, cause the ice outside won't last long enough. But it will be awhile before the powerlines are restrung.



Oh, if it does ice up, don't plan on driving to the airport, cause they don't have de-icers and nothing will be flying out.

[aceason]

I love this because they are predicting an inch, that's right, one inch, of snow here in the Seattle area and everyone is freaking out and doing these things! Seriously it will probably be gone by morning and we'll all have full tanks of gas and enough food to last until the next natural disaster!

[MamaK321]

hahahahahaha too funny reading all this!! of course I'm sorry for the awful weather but I'm sooo not a snow kinda gal. *whew*

[deerewife]

too funny! I've been stuck in my house for 2 days. I now have a list of three things on my grocery list - cheese, tomato soup and eggs. Sadly even in Nebraska (the real NE!) people flock to the store when it's going to be bad. I just happened to be doing my regular shopping last Thursday and it was a mad house! I did stock up on zip locs, but only cause I was truly out of them

Enjoy your weather and may you get some scrapping done. I've done none, but my trees are down and my laundry is caught up and actually put away. Oh, and the basement is clean and ready for the doors to be installed, if the guys helping dh can get up our lane.

[killarney_rose]

My grandmother was born out in the family's summer house on Corn Hill on the Cape. She loved to tell me about Nor'easters. As I read your post I couldn't help but see the routine for getting ready for a tropical storm or hurricane. I made the decision after going through the evacuation of Rita, the summer before we bought the ranch as something I would NEVER do again. I much rather go through a Cat 5 Storm under stress in my house then be on the road stressed with a bunch of people I have no business being around. Never mind I had two horse and a dog with me at the time. Of those three, two were special needs animals (one of the horses and the dog). I'd been through way too many TS to count and one Cat 3 Hurricane Alica, so how much worse can a CAT 5 be. NEVER SAY NEVER! I was the only one who evacuated for Ike. My mother needed to leave with her horse and dogs so I met her at the ranch. And I made Lynn leave College Station because she owns a Mobile Home there and come to the ranch. For both storms I sat on the porch of my MIL's for Rita and the porch at the ranch for Ike and watched the storm blow. Gale force winds for both and in both cases the porch I was on was downwind. Our occasional snow or ice in Central Texas, I go to the store to stock up for a couple of days because I don't know how to drive on either and don't. It's mostly for my Dr. Pepper addiction.

LOL....kittymomma cracked me up! I'm originally from Niagara Falls. In 1984, my job took me to Marathon, New York for three months. As I met those of my age group they asked me where I was from. I was stunned. I still had people ask where I was from when I had lived in Texas for 14 years at the age of 23. That's when I realized I had truly lost the accent of my state of birth. I've never had a problem with people wanting to talk to me, not even in New England. All I have to do is open my mouth. I get this question of where are you from. As soon as I say Texas, I get swamped with questions. Why in the world are people so dang interested in my home state? Every time I said thank you to someone in Portland in June there it went. Favorite question was do you have cows and an oil well(s)? Agh, yes to the first and no to the second but I have a business in the oil & gas sector. Then it was on. My least favorite question, "If you own cattle, why aren't you wearing boots and a cowboy hat?" Cause I don't want, too! No, I'm not that rude, I answer politely. Second least favorite question, "Do you really have tumbleweeds?' My reply, 'I've never seen one, so I don't know if there are any.' And that's the truth....LOL!

[Judy19]

still haven´t stopped laughing over your posts

[mgehrke]

I wish we had snowdays in MN. My co-worker lives in Hartford CT and our office out there is closed today due to the weather. He is now picking on me because I have to work and he doesn't. What is wrong with this picture? I have worked for our company for over 15 years now and we only closed once. That was the Halloween storm of 91. We had over 3 ft of snow come down fast. My DH drove a towtruck at that time and I didn't see him for 4 days. I still took our DD trick or treating. It is kind of difficult when you are 3 months pregnant trudging through snowbanks with a 5 year old.


I hope everyone on the east coast stays safe and enjoys their snowday.

[LyndaKay]

Reporting live from my blizzard command center on the south shore of Massachusetts: "It's coming down and it's coming down hard." Where? Seriously...we only have 3 inches. We were supposed to get 12! That's why all the Stop & Shop milk and water are in my refrigerator! We did have a 20 ft branch come down on the side of the house, but no windows broke. ...only a few scratches on the clapboards.

Stay warm fellow blizzard lovers!!