1595 Low Snow Guilt

1595 Low Snow Guilt

We got less snow than you did. Much less. That should be a cause for happiness, but it isn’t.  Guilt arrives laughing when practically everyone you know has been buried under the storm that ground through the northeast this past weekend.

The roads are clear.  The driveways and sidewalks are clear. We received two inches compared with the two feet most of the rest got in this part of the country.

Sunday dawned bright and nearly cloudless here in the Valley of the Dulls.  The temperature is a relatively balmy 22 degrees.  And not even Sunday school was cancelled because of the weather.

This is a mini version of the guilt one feels as the survivor of a fatal car crash or fire.  But it comes from the same root: “Why was I spared, and not the others?”

It almost makes one want to go out and shovel snow onto the driveway just so you can shovel it off in a public display of solidarity with friends in Nutley or Philadelphia or New York or Boston.

“We should be grateful,” say the transcripts of the preachers.  “We are so lucky” says the poor excuse of a newspaper that arrives soggy but still readable.

One guy, right across the street, took matters into his own hands.  He shoveled even though he didn’t need to. Even though Cutsie Condos has a crew of guys with plows and shovels who would later arrive.  But he’s new.  Probably he won’t repeat his guilt trip.

We could gripe about driving or walking snow blind. Our local chiropractors could whine about having no new bad backs to unsubluxate. The hospital (on par with the local newspaper) could complain that not a single snow-related heart attack took place.

But these don’t rise to the standards set elsewhere.  There wasn’t even a decent car pileup on the highways (also on par with the newspaper.)  So this morning, we’ll hear from the out of work collision shop workers and no one’s auto insurance will double.

Economic slowdown here, while the storm brought overtime pay to thousands of public works workers elsewhere.

We knew it was going to be this way. But we emptied the grocers’ shelves of bread, milk, eggs, water, batteries and shovels nonetheless.  (Also the state-owned liquor stores which are on par with the newspaper, the hospital and the highways.)

The airport (on par with the newspaper and the hospital, the hospital and the liquor stores) closed, but didn’t have to, though there was no place to fly.  And besides, airports’ mission in life is to make travelers miserable, even if only to prepare them for the additional misery they’ll experience on their flights.

Does all this lessen our guilt?

Not a bit.  

The only beneficiaries will be the psychiatrists’ couches and the confessionals.

Snow guilt.  It’s debilitating.  It’s ugly.

Shrapnel:

--During the snowstorm, NY Mayor de Blastoff banned driving and threatened to arrest violators. Earlier, he also wanted to ban Central Park horse carriages.  What’s with this guy and private transportation?

Quote of the day: “We try to limit that.” -- Los Angeles Sheriff Sandra Hutchens commenting on the escape of three inmates from a high-security jail on Sunday, January 24, 2015.

I’m Wes Richards. My opinions are my own but you’re welcome to them. ®

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© WJR 2016