SNOW DAZE!!

Being raised mostly in Idaho, Wyoming, and Utah, it has cracked me up since moving to Tennessee over 22 years ago that snow causes such a PANIC within the community. Although I realize that snow here is very unusual, and the area spends few if any tax dollars on ice trucks or snow plows -- and it's hard to find snow boots, waterproof gloves or sleds at the stores -- it still makes me smile when there's a forecast for snow.

You absolutely cannot get into the parking lot at Kroger, and if you do, the shelves are bare -- everybody has to get extra milk and bread, and...cases and cases of canned goods, just in case they can never leave their house again because of the snow. And the interstates are a parking lot -- filled with people who think that it looks pretty but really don't change the speed they drive. ORRRR...even worse...those who think that you must only go 15-20 mph because the roads have a little white stuff on them. Wrecks galore because of one extreme or the other.

Now granted, Tennessee gets lots of ice storms, and the snow here does freeze over very quickly because it stays wet and then the temp drops way down and turns it into a cold, hard, icy layer of black on the roads. (But that's usually overnight, and during the day the sun comes out and makes it fun again...)

The fun part of snow here is that school is cancelled regularly based merely on a 'scary' forecast, offices sometimes close early, and today, even church in our whole stake was cancelled because of the snow. We actually got 6-7 inches this weekend, very unusual here. While many stayed in and avoided the potential of overexposure, our family was out enjoying the snow with several people on our street -- sledding down the road in our culdesac, trying unsuccessfully to make a snowball or a snowman (the snow was hard and frozen), and even venturing on to the roads to see a movie and go out to dinner last night -- NO TRAFFIC, AND NO LINES ANYWHERE! (Steve likes to rev up and do donuts in the parking lots and spin out on the roadways -- which still makes me nervous, even when we're the only car around.) While I must admit we were chilled to the bone when we got home, it was worth it to enjoy the uniqueness of snow in Tennessee.