Monday, January 31, 2011

Ice Storm 2011 and Other Random Musings...

Today was definitely a better Monday than last week. I don’t know if it was the sunshine this weekend or just things felt better but the gloom and heaviness of January seemed to be absent and things were better.

Whatever the reason, it’s nice to go to work, have a good day and feel like I accomplished something which isn’t always the case on Mondays.

Of course, tomorrow may be a different story. We’re supposed to have a ‘crippling’ ice-storm sometime between tonight and tomorrow morning. I’m not sure what a ‘crippling’ ice storm is, really. While I love the beauty of the ice-encased world after an ice-storm, it’s my least favourite winter weather when I have to drive on it. If it’s the type of day where I don’t have to go anywhere, I’m fond of ice-storms. Everything becomes frozen and framed within a layer of ice and it’s just stunning to see.

It’s just horrible to drive on. I’m an ice-wuss. I hate driving on the stuff. Snow isn’t so bad. Ice…well, it’s ice. Once you slide, you just have to let it go. There’s no easy way to deal with it.

My guess as to the word ‘crippling’ is that it’s likely to knock out the power everywhere. This often happens when the power lines get overloaded with ice and they end up snapping or causing problems. In my case, I have to say, at home, at least, I’m not too worried about it. I’m very fortunate in the location of my house in that I live on the street where the fire station and police station resides. Thus, they’re one of those places that really, really needs power particularly when it comes to paramedic and fire calls. Thus, power gets restored to that grid first. That grid is my grid. I’m ok with that.

The things with storms like this is that the weather and media sets them up to be An Event. Right now, we’re on the ICE STORM of 2011. This is not a joke. This is what the local news is calling it. It’s all action stations now with people checking in. Reporters are doing that weird thing where they stand outside and wait for the storm to begin so they can report it As. It. Happens.

I don’t understand that, honestly. Why stand outside during an ice-storm. Why not, say, look out the window and report on it? I always feel sorry for the reporters who get stationed outside during a snowstorm and have to report how traffic is moving and how quickly the snow is accumulating. For one thing, they always look rather cold and, another, they just look…a little silly.

It’s like when there’s a hurricane brewing down in Florida. There’s always the reporters who are waiting for it to begin and then, when it does, they look like they’re having trouble standing up. I suppose to some extent, there’s a sort of thrill that comes from that. Maybe it’s an adrenaline thing. At least for the hurricane reporters.

But what about the snow/ice reporters? They’re basically waiting for it to…start raining/snowing. When it does, every single person within the viewing area can also look out his/her window and see that it is, in fact, snowing/raining. It’s not like, say, a massive bird death where hundreds of bird corpses rain down on them while they’re standing there. Now, if the ice came down like that lake in the Superman movie where he freezes it with his superbreath and then picks it up and flies it over a fire, that would be cool. And don’t judge me for my Superman reference. I used to love Superman. This was back before I got all dark and twisty in my tastes and started to prefer Batman and Iron Man. It was the same period in my life when I was in love with Luke Skywalker. Hey, I was seven.

I digress. So, Ice Storm 2011 has yet to commence. I feel like I’m being brainwashed to think of it as an event, like I should look out the window and say “It. Has. Begun” in an ominous James Early Jones-y kind of voice. I end up sounding more like a terrible version of Gandalf from Lord of the Rings when I do try and say that, by the way. Oh, no judging there either. Who doesn’t like a little LOTR. In my case, who doesn’t love a little Aragorn? I’m digressing again. So, long story short, I think the news is working. They’re making me feel some weird sense of anticipation over the weather. I suppose I should give them some credit for that because I’m a cynic and don’t want to care about the blasted ICE STORM 2011.

It’s the same sort of credit I have to give the band Train for that bloody “Hey, Soul Sister” song. When I first heard it, I was apathetic. Then it started to be everywhere with that “Hey, Hey, Hey-yay-yay-yay” refrain. Then the song popped up everywhere and I began to hate it. Then, I heard it on the radio and my brain said, “Hey, I like this song!” even though I had only moments before despised it. Thus, I now like that song because the radio and every fourth TV commercial tells me I should and my stupid brain believed it. Grr. It’s proof positive when you hear something enough, you just go with it. It’s a little too 1984 if you ask me. Orwell would be quite proud of Train, I think. Them and Kings of Leon who used to annoy me with that “Use Somebody” song because it was EVERYWHERE and then without realizing it, I realized I was singing along which meant I started to like the song.

So, basically, my summation of ICE STORM 2011 is that it’s like that song by Train. I try to play it cool and not care but the more the frenzy builds in the media, the more my subconscious things that after “Gossip Girl”, I should turn on the news to see if it’s raining yet even though I could simply stick my head out the back door and see for myself. I also suppose that the mere fact that I’ve blogged about ICE STORM 2011 means that the weather forecaster’s evil ploy has worked and I’m now anticipating some type of weather Event.

I’m sure I didn’t use to be quite so susceptible to this type of thing. Then again, I never cared so much about the weather either. Does this mean I’m getting old? I did want to yell at Son of Dog Whisperer yesterday for cutting across my lawn.

Oh dear. It is happening. I’m turning into an old person.

Help me!

Happy Tuesday!

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