ITSA COMIN'...SO THEY SAY

They tell me there is an impending snow storm about to overtake Lafayette, the Midwest...and eventually the East coast. Yesterday...the skies were blue and sunny. By late afternoon the snow began to fall...followed by some sleet. Still...the 2 to 5 inches of predicted snow turned out to be about an inch-and-a-half. We're sorta getting programmed like the folks in Florida and the south...who are told to evacuate for the impending hurricane...that turns out to fizzle before landfall.

Historically, our local weather crew likes to build up a big storm...only to have it never quite turn out to be as bad a picture...as the one they painted. The only thing the local TV coverage seemed to produce so far...are empty shelves at the grocery store...and a total closure of every school in the multi-county area...including Purdue University...which hardly ever closes. All that preparation...and we have 1 1/2 inches of snow on the ground this morning.

They continue to say not much will happen today...at least until this evening, so why close all the schools today? I guess just in case it gets uglier...sooner than expected.

Late this afternoon 'the storm' is supposed to begin...and it will apparently go on for over 24 hours...ending sometime Wednesday night.

If they are right this time...we will go to bed tomorrow night with somewhere between 10-15 inches of snow on the ground. If that is the case...Cindy's Christmas gift of the snow blower may very well be the best gift she has ever given me. She's been convinced for years that...since I'm on 'old' man now...she's going to some day find me sprawled out in the driveway with a snow shovel in one hand and clutching my heart in the other. I have a good heart, but my back will surely be happy to not have to shovel the kind of snow they are predicting.

When Cindy & I moved to Lafayette in 1974, we found our winters to not be much worse than what we were used to in Southern Indiana. But then in the winter of '76-77...the 'big storm' hit us. The snow was so deep, I could hardly get the back door of our house to open against the snow. It was a challenge to just get out of 'the house'...let alone get our vehicles out of the driveway. I walked about 6 blocks to one of the 'main' streets in town where a friend picked me up to take me to work. Was I dedicated or what? I think...what.

As the days after that storm passed and the streets and highways were cleared of snow, some of the county roads had snow piled so high, it looked as if you were driving down a bobsled run. I hitched a ride to the grocery store with our neighbor because he had chains on his tires and could get his vehicle through the snow. The shelves of the store were pretty bare by the time we got there, with no bread in the store. So I bought biscuits.

If the upcoming snow storm comes to be...it will likely be one that our grandchildren will recall in their older years. "Remember back when we were 9 (and 7), and that snow storm that hit mamaw and papaw's house when we lived with them? Wow...that sure was fun."

Yea...fun for them. They didn't have to shovel out that driveway...even if it was with the snowblower!!


Dan