The blizzard barreling across the county the last 24 hours produces a gut reaction for some of us not affected by it: Glad I’m not in its path!
News of tragedies often provokes empathy, genuine sorrow for lives needlessly lost. But news of bad weather impacting other people produces, in me at least, a giggle of relief.
Not that I’ve never been on the other end. Living in the desert for 29 years, I watched the rest of the country marvel that we could tolerate temps of 110 day after day. Then I got my satisfaction in the winter.
Now that I’m living in a more temperate climate – although still in the “arid west” – I share the inconvenience of paralyzing snowstorms, although admittedly not as often or on such a grand scale. (It just doesn’t take all that much to paralyze a city of 40,000, but 10 inches was enough to immobilize the guy who was coming to fix the snow blower I was unable to use.)
So to all my friends and family scattered across the storm’s path, I really do extend my empathetic best wishes. But I’m smiling with relief that it didn’t affect me.
Because my overnight lows in the single digits for two nights running, with sub-zero wind chills, are about all I can handle right now.
News of tragedies often provokes empathy, genuine sorrow for lives needlessly lost. But news of bad weather impacting other people produces, in me at least, a giggle of relief.
Not that I’ve never been on the other end. Living in the desert for 29 years, I watched the rest of the country marvel that we could tolerate temps of 110 day after day. Then I got my satisfaction in the winter.
Now that I’m living in a more temperate climate – although still in the “arid west” – I share the inconvenience of paralyzing snowstorms, although admittedly not as often or on such a grand scale. (It just doesn’t take all that much to paralyze a city of 40,000, but 10 inches was enough to immobilize the guy who was coming to fix the snow blower I was unable to use.)
So to all my friends and family scattered across the storm’s path, I really do extend my empathetic best wishes. But I’m smiling with relief that it didn’t affect me.
Because my overnight lows in the single digits for two nights running, with sub-zero wind chills, are about all I can handle right now.
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