Let it snow

We Wisconsinites pride ourselves on our ability to function in almost any kind of weather. Hot, humid summers? No sweat – head to the lake to cool off. Crisp late fall days? Perfect for heading up north for hunting season, or taking a looky-lou tour of the fall colors. Rainy, grey spring? The flower and vegetable gardens will flourish.

But winter – ah winter. For all but one day of winter, we deal easily with heavy, wet snow, arctic winds feeding below-zero wind chills, thaw-refreeze cycles depositing ice on the sidewalks and roadways, and occasional traffic-reducing blizzards.

That one day, however, the day of the first snowfall of the season, all bets are off. People who routinely speed rear-wheel drive sports cars through four inches of new snow during the rest of the winter abruptly forget how to drive. City dwellers – with Walgreens, Starbucks and a local tavern on virtually every corner – strip the grocery store shelves of milk, bread, beer and other staples, as if they expect to be snowbound for a week. Fistfights break out at Target over the last case of toilet paper. Events that would go ahead in January, in spite of a raging blizzard, will be cancelled at this time of year because of the chance of the first snow.

You really do wonder if a collective stupidity descended on the city along with the storm clouds.

Since this year’s first storm had the grace to come on a late Saturday afternoon into evening, I was able to deal with it in the best way possible, by lighting the Christmas tree, curling up on the couch under a quilt with a mug of steaming hot chocolate and watching a couple of movies.