Going on a Quest

I didn’t know there was an step above winter storm warning.

Until ours got upgraded to a blizzard warning.

Maybe everyone else already knew this, but I moved here a year ago from the mountainous part of North Carolina where we saw white stuff maybe five times a year and it might stick overnight twice—and society would grind to a total halt for those occasions, even if it was only an inch. In my defense, the last time it snowed here about a month ago was the most it’s dumped in many many years, about 8 inches, and that made it the snowiest winter in a long time. This new round of blizzard is getting described with words like “historic” and “record-breaking” which I don’t like at all.

Most places getting hit by this are looking at one to two feet of snow. The last batch is 99% gone, but it took a couple weeks to even start melting because it was paired with zero-degree temps and horrible bone-freezing wind chill. It’s much warmer now and should melt faster.

I shouldn’t have to do much work tomorrow, though I am almost definitely expected to show up and sit there for 8 hours. Technically there could be an emergency closure, but my old office didn’t do it when a got-damned inland hurricane hit town and there was no running water in the building, or in anyone’s home at all, and 90% of people had no power, etc etc for several weeks. Snow isn’t gonna qualify if that didn’t. So I’ll come up with some DIY snowshoes or ski poles to get myself there and get paid to fart around playing on my phone and reading. I’ll get brownie points without having to really do anything, which is a good deal in my book.

In the meantime, it’s only just starting to change from cold rain to more visible sloppy sleety snow-ish stuff coming down. I’m closing the blinds. I’ve got tea, wine, roast potatoes, backup peanut butter, and a cat. I got out some markers and paper I don’t care about to fool around drawing. All we can do is snuggle in and see how it goes.

What’s your bad weather routine, toolkit, tradition, whatever you want to call it?