The totals are not in yet, but I'm confident they'll be staggering for quite a few places. I'm talking about the white stuff; snow.
I've been surfing the web off and on today, reading about "the storm." We've got incoming guests already delayed, and keeping our fingers crossed for departing guests who we hope will not be delayed to their next destination... but that's not looking too good right now either.
I enjoy snow pictures when they first start to pop up. It looks pretty, really, it does! Who am I trying to convince, you or me? Then, the reality washes over me. Almost nothing feels worse than heavy wet snow and frigid cold air pummeling legs clad in short booties and pantyhose, as my hands grip a metal pipe snow scraper, pushing far too many inches of snow off the roof of a car. One of my personal favorites was always the clearing of the car windows that went like this: wipe wipe wipe wipe wipe wipe ad nauseum (snow brush); scrape scrape scratchy screech scrape scrape etc (snow scraper OR credit card); pop (car door lock); thump (my butt on the seat); grumble grumble (me, seeing snow crumbles at the bottom of the driver's side window); eeeeeeee (the sound of the electric window going down very slowly), and; *&#@#! (the sound of me cursing as that same snow falls INSIDE the car, onto the seat upon my freezing legs clad in those short booties and pantyhose). How many times was I trapped at the office, driving in no snow, by end of the day, blizzard conditions. Never really prepared. Even living in the frozen tundra I didn't keep ski pants and parkas hanging in my office "just in case." No, that was not me. I lived in denial that it would snow, and snow big sometimes. Did I mention the special feeling I'd get as the snow was invariably deeper than those cute booties, so much so that it just all falls inside said cute booties. Ahhh... the joys of winter. Translation: Why I moved here, from there.
Here I sat on Big Pine Key today. After two absolutely glorious days, the winds picked up overnight. They were from the north. I admit it, tenderfoot me wussed out on the running. It was "only" 66 degrees, and the north winds just weren't doing it for me. I looked over at the Coupon Bight and saw white caps; didn't like that, especially since I run parallel to the Bight. I knew the wind would push me around one way or another. So, I bailed. Instead, I walked up and down the beach then sat in one of my heavy duty recycled plastic Made in the USA Adirondack chairs, and thought about stuff. My brain has been aching with lots of important issues lately and I purposely just let my mind wander to nothing. I watched the birds catching their thermals. Watched the pelicans dive for food. Let Peri climb onto my lap, and bundled up in the warmest shirt I could find. Stared at the sand. Observed my pink toe nail polish, feet clad in flip flops; NOT snow booties (not even cute snow booties).
Sorry about your snow. We don't have any on Big Pine Key. Not now, not ever. Not even with global "climate change." I'm sticking around these parts for a while. If you can make it out of your snowbound city, perhaps I'll see you on the beach with a margarita. You'll know me when you see me; I'm the one in the flip flops writing stories about not scraping ice from car windows with my credit card anymore.
I've been surfing the web off and on today, reading about "the storm." We've got incoming guests already delayed, and keeping our fingers crossed for departing guests who we hope will not be delayed to their next destination... but that's not looking too good right now either.
I enjoy snow pictures when they first start to pop up. It looks pretty, really, it does! Who am I trying to convince, you or me? Then, the reality washes over me. Almost nothing feels worse than heavy wet snow and frigid cold air pummeling legs clad in short booties and pantyhose, as my hands grip a metal pipe snow scraper, pushing far too many inches of snow off the roof of a car. One of my personal favorites was always the clearing of the car windows that went like this: wipe wipe wipe wipe wipe wipe ad nauseum (snow brush); scrape scrape scratchy screech scrape scrape etc (snow scraper OR credit card); pop (car door lock); thump (my butt on the seat); grumble grumble (me, seeing snow crumbles at the bottom of the driver's side window); eeeeeeee (the sound of the electric window going down very slowly), and; *&#@#! (the sound of me cursing as that same snow falls INSIDE the car, onto the seat upon my freezing legs clad in those short booties and pantyhose). How many times was I trapped at the office, driving in no snow, by end of the day, blizzard conditions. Never really prepared. Even living in the frozen tundra I didn't keep ski pants and parkas hanging in my office "just in case." No, that was not me. I lived in denial that it would snow, and snow big sometimes. Did I mention the special feeling I'd get as the snow was invariably deeper than those cute booties, so much so that it just all falls inside said cute booties. Ahhh... the joys of winter. Translation: Why I moved here, from there.
Here I sat on Big Pine Key today. After two absolutely glorious days, the winds picked up overnight. They were from the north. I admit it, tenderfoot me wussed out on the running. It was "only" 66 degrees, and the north winds just weren't doing it for me. I looked over at the Coupon Bight and saw white caps; didn't like that, especially since I run parallel to the Bight. I knew the wind would push me around one way or another. So, I bailed. Instead, I walked up and down the beach then sat in one of my heavy duty recycled plastic Made in the USA Adirondack chairs, and thought about stuff. My brain has been aching with lots of important issues lately and I purposely just let my mind wander to nothing. I watched the birds catching their thermals. Watched the pelicans dive for food. Let Peri climb onto my lap, and bundled up in the warmest shirt I could find. Stared at the sand. Observed my pink toe nail polish, feet clad in flip flops; NOT snow booties (not even cute snow booties).
Sorry about your snow. We don't have any on Big Pine Key. Not now, not ever. Not even with global "climate change." I'm sticking around these parts for a while. If you can make it out of your snowbound city, perhaps I'll see you on the beach with a margarita. You'll know me when you see me; I'm the one in the flip flops writing stories about not scraping ice from car windows with my credit card anymore.
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