This is Not Siberia

Last week during the opening ceremonies of the 2014 Winter Olympics, there was a clip about Siberia Russia. The weather can get down to minus 50 degrees. The people who live there tend to be native of Siberia and acclimated to the extreme and continual cold.   Ice and snow is a way of life for the people. Well lets just make it clear that I am not writing you from Siberia.  Ice and snow is NOT a way of life for us Southerner's. Thus when snow and ice hits in my town, life as we know it pretty much stops.

This is our second "snow storm" of the season.  Just two weeks ago we were home bound because of ice and snow. Well here we are again. If you are from the northern part of the US, this is probably an unbelievable phenomenon to you. A town seemingly shutting down every time it gets frozen precipitation is likely laughable. The truth is, we just don't have what it takes to function in such weather so the safest place for folks on a day like today is home.

This is day two.  Yesterday's snow shut down schools as well as some other businesses although it was a moderate snow.  I understand it mainly was in preparation for what was to come today.  I woke up today to a beautiful white, quiet. There were no people out and no cars running.  The only movement was the fall of a snow/ice precipitation.  I heard and saw people out and about as the day progressed however I personally spent the day on my computer. You see the big talk of the weather people is that the frozen precipitation will continue throughout tonight and with it the increased chances of loosing electricity.  So yesterday evening I began my preparation for "the big Shut Down.".

Last night I made sure that I had food that I could eat (cookies in particular) without needing to cook. All my cooking devices are electric.  Then I made sure that all my clothes were clean. Granted I have enough clothes for 3 weeks without washing but I needed to make sure that all my favorites were clean.  Then I vacuumed because if the power goes out, I wont be able to. That makes sense, right,  I showered so that I would be clean and shaved my legs. Considering that I live alone, I am not sure why I felt shaving my legs was necessary, but I did. I gathered candles, filled up buckets with water, and made sure all electronics including my I-pod were charged.  Today I have sent e-mails, wrote a newsletter, downloaded pictures, and even surfed the net because "tomorrow I may not be able to!" And now I am writing a blog entry because when one is home bound for three or four days, there is no excuse for not writing a post. Considering that I still have electricity, I think I will throw my blanket in the dryer, fix a hot drink  and curl up on the couch with a movie.  Because like I said, this is not Siberia and cold and ice is not my way of life!