They Got It Wrong

[poliphilo]

They said it would snow overnight. They were carrying on as if the Martians were coming, urging us not to leave our homes unless it was really necessary.  For some reason the English have never been able to cope with snow; anything more than a light dusting and society comes to a halt. So I woke up this morning expecting to see a winter wonderland spread beneath the windows. 

Nothing. Not a flake. Not even a damp patch.

Most of me was glad. I do, after all, have a life to be getting on with. But the part of me that is 8 years old felt cheated.

Comments

[tispity.livejournal.com]

You've just summed up exactly the mixture of relief and childish disappointment that I felt this morning when I tentatively opened the curtains to see precisely... zero snow.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

It's unusual these days for the forecasters to get it so wrong.

[idahoswede.livejournal.com]

You may come down here and play in our slush snow if you like. It's still somewhat white.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

We must be right at the edge of the weather system. It's below freezing and over-cast and every so often the odd flake will flutter down

[samhain-punk.livejournal.com]

We have about 2 inches here in Cambridge and it's still coming down. It's beautiful!

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Cambridge in the snow- yes!

[pondhopper.livejournal.com]

Isn´t that how it always goes with the weather? We were supposed to have something akin to a hurricane down here today and yes, we´ve got half-hearted rain and a slight breeze that barely makes the windchimes sound. I´m glad we were spared the winds, though.

I´d love to see Canbridge in the snow knowing how lovely it is even without.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Much of the rest of the country seems to have had snow. It's a measure of how comically obsessed we are with the weather that the lunchtime news spent about 20 minutes burbling about schools being closed and children building snowmen.

[humblenarrator.livejournal.com]

it's the same thing here in seattle. it rarely snows, and when it does, it seems as if the entire city shuts down. i come from wisconsin, originally, where it snowed quite a bit all winter long—or did, before global warming—and we missed only a few days of school all year. it's quite odd.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

This happens perhaps once a year- the preparations are never adequate. And maybe we choose to have it this way. Certainly we behave like its a semi-official public holiday- close the schools down, stay away from work and generally have fun.

[jackiejj.livejournal.com]

Exactly!!

They did the same thing to us last week. People got so hysterical all the bread and milk got sold at the stores and the schools shut down before the storm came.

Then we all waited by our windows, and the smirking meteorologists, whom I will never believe again, said "Well, the storm went south!"

I went for a walk and a boy was rolling a snowball as big as his head; it was covered with leaves, and he had used all the snow-dust in his yard to make it.

"I thought we'd get five inches!" he said, and I said, "More like five millimeters," which left him wondering.