After checking the national weather and seeing the temperatures on the East Coast: -16 in Boston, I will not complain about the 20 degrees here in East Texas, although my animals were complaining big time, especially the goat and the sheep. Both were shivering like mad when I went out to give them some hay and bust out the ice on their water pans.
This is a strong storm that has brought all the freezing temperatures and hit the Midwest and East Coast with such an impact, but I am a bit surprised, and amused, that the media has named it. I guess simply calling it a winter storm isn’t enough for the folks who bring us the news. Naming it Winter Storm Hercules makes it sound much more significant, although I’m sure the people who are experiencing the blizzard conditions and extreme cold are finding the storm significant enough without having to give it a name.
Remember when only hurricanes were named? I wonder if we will now start naming tornadoes and those really horrific thunderstorms that sweep across the country. That might justify the hours and hours spent on reporting the weather. Last night’s newscasts, both local and national, led with the weather, and maybe there could have been a better balance between that and other news. Just a thought.
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| A reminder that spring will come again. |
Fun From the Funny Papers – First from Heart of the City by Mark Tatulli
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| Image courtesy of My Recipes.com – You can make this with or without brandy, but brandy does keep you warm. |
Do you have plans for the weekend that will take you outside? I’m hoping to stay indoors as much as possible. This is a good time to find a good book and curl up under a Snuggie.
Great post. Especially liked Doonesbury. Funny, although it’s very close to true, isn’t it?
Thanks for stopping by, Charles. Glad you liked the Doonesbury cartoon. The strip always has such an element of truth.
We got about 8″ in NJ – and I went out and did some shoveling. Stupid stuff somehow had a wet heavy layer under the fluffy stuff, and kept staying on the shovel, making it very heavy.
I believe in minimum shoveling: two ruts out to the road for the tires, and a path down the center of the sidewalk for the dogwalkers. Husband has the ‘clear the world’ syndrome – but even he came in early and said it wasn’t worth a heart attack.
Hope you’re all dug out there in Texas. In NJ it will probably be 45 and raining in a couple of days. They say if you don’t like the weather here, just wait two hours.
Stay warm.
Alicia
Alicia, funny how that saying about the weather seems to fit no matter where you live. We have a similar one here in TX.
When we lived in NE, I shoveled pretty much the same way you do – minimum – but I also had to shovel a path from the back door to a spot in the back yard I cleared as a puppy potty. We had two very small dogs who could literally be lost in a foot of snow. They also didn’t care much for an inch of snow if it meant walking on it. LOL