A Blast from the Past

More accurately, it's a blast from out west somewhere. However, today's weather creates a sense of deja vu in me, for good reason.

We're having an unusual bout of ickiness: freezing rain with wind and temperatures hovering just above and just below freezing. Things are slick. People are unable to get from A to B and back.

And I have to go out in it this afternoon.

I'm sure it will be fine. Crews started sanding and salting and I-don't-know-what-else last night. They've had ample time to work on the roads today. My car warms up quickly; its gas tank is full. I know to leave extra time to get to my Point B today.

It's just that this weather reminds me of my growing-up years in Oklahoma. This is normal winter weather there. It comes in waves--perhaps three big storms in a season. Mostly, people deal with it by calling off school, calling in "never" to work (or nowadays, working from home), taking their time, doing their best, trying not to slip and fall. One year when I was in high school, we missed most of two weeks of school, but that was pretty bad. A day here and there was more common.

Weather like this made winter scary back in those days. Cars ended up in ditches. Homes would lose power for days or weeks. For all of my mother's dire warnings about winter here--snow on the ground from Thanksgiving till May, and that's Canadian Thanksgiving!--these icy ickies feel more dangerous.

That's partly because Oklahoma, even in the cities, is set up in such a way that people have to drive cars to get around. Thunder Bay too--the city bus service, though extant, isn't particularly convenient.

Normally, I enjoy winter, because winter weather isn't normally like this. This is what I moved from. Now it's the weather's turn to move along, away from me.