There are few things that bind us together like weather. No matter what a person’s socio-economic status, they get wet, hot, or cold just like the rest of us. Ok, if you’re rich enough you can afford to move where the weather suits your clothes, but if you’re like most of us, you have to deal with whatever Mother Nature sends your way. And, if you’re a typical American, few things give you more self-righteous satisfaction than knowing that out of the 300 million people in the country, YOU are the only one that knows how to cope with weather. So as this weekend’s winter storm brought wintry conditions to parts of the country that don’t often see snow, I could hear people chortling smugly from Buffalo to Fargo. Of course people in Dallas don’t know how to drive in snow; why the F#@$ would they? The chortlers also conveniently forget that that first full-on snow usually brings plenty of misery to northern climes as well.
It’s all basically a cycle. Someone, somewhere, sometime will be laughing at you and your neighbors. People from the Northwest snicker when schools in the Midwest delay their start because of fog, people in Michigan laugh when the South gets snow, and people in the South can’t understand the hysteria of a Midwestern heat wave. But thanks to Jimmy Kimmel, at least we can all laugh at southern California.
Actually, the problem for Dallasites and Texans is not as much driving on snow, but on ice, commonly called ‘black ice’ because asphalt just looks dark or wet, and you often are not aware it is a sheen of ice. – Too funny about southern CA reporting!!
You’re right, in the South we don’t understand how the Midwest moans about heat and humidity. But in all fairness, it’s also beyond my imagination to understand how (and why!) people live in places like Minnesota where -15F isn’t that unusual. There’s no way I could cope, so perhaps they deserve to be a little smug. It might help keep them warm.
To be fair, it doesn’t rain here for 9-10 months and oil builds up on the roads. When the rain first starts, the oil floats on the surface of the wet roads and makes them wickedly slick. Besides, when you are used to sunny and 70, rain is exciting.
laugh it up. It’s going to be 75F on Christmas.
Hence the expression, “He who laughs last, laugh best…” Enjoy your warmth while scrape away ice!