Actually, G. Nome, people do that here, too, sometimes, for window decor around the winter holiday season. I am not nearly that ambitious, but it looks pretty, if done well, IMHO.
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I lived in Chicago for a bit, and although I loved the snow (I din’t have to drive anywhere) and didn’t want to go to work so I could play, people just got on with things. Even after the Jan 1999 snow, things were moving along pretty much normally within a day or two. I so miss the snow and the cold. Seriously.
There’d better be a pile of snow and some ass freezingly low temperatures when I get back or there will be one seriously pissed Englishman at O’Hare
[hijack]
This reminds me of the great ice storm of '91. (I should probably capitalize that, considering that I’ll be telling the story to my grandkids someday.)
Imagine it raining, only the rain freezes almost instantly once it lands on something. The trees were coated with a veneer of ice; individual blades of grass, and leaves, had their own jacket of ice formed around them. You could break the grass like glass.
One of the most beautiful things I have ever seen is a forest, silent and frozen, a layer of ice coating trunks and branches, shimmering in the dim winter’s sun.
Numerous trees were destroyed from the weight of the ice, as were many powerlines. Our power was out for about a week, at was the phone and plumbing. School, of course, was cancelled for several days.
At night, without power, we made a fire in the fireplace to keep warm, and told stories to entertain each other. We cooked food over the woodstove, which was an interesting experience. Note: Beans&weenies cooked on a woodburning-stove - excellent; mac&cheese on the same - gooey and disgusting.
Candles provided light when the sun went down, but we didn’t use them much. We went to bed at dusk, waking at dawn. During the daylight I got a lot of reading done. At night I talked to my family more than I ever had before.
After a couple of days, the power came back on. It lasted an hour, teasing us, then went away.
But after a few more days, when the power came back for good, I didn’t even notice for several hours. When I did, I was more than a little disappointed.
[/hijack]
Woohoo - getting my first real winter her in Des Moines, after a lifetime in SoCal and Phoenix (small rant - how idi I get so lucky as to experience a full Phoenix summer followed by a Des Moines winter in the same year?)
Stay warm isn’t a problem - I have lots of winter clothes. Learning to drive in the snow hasn’t been as scary as I thought. Slow and steady, with lots of planning is the trick. Interestingly, most of the cars I’ve seen stuck in snowbanks on the side of the freeway and in the median have been SUVs. Is this because they decide that since they have an SUV they no longer have to drive slowly and carefully? The couple of accidents I’ve nearly been or seen happen were caused by people driving an SUV or full-size pick-up in a stupid manner.
Chique, do you mean Homestead? If so, Marcie and I just moved out of Homestead and no, your trees are gone. In fact, the entire base is mostly still junk—windows missing, doorways boarded up, acres of weeds growing through cracks in cement–a mess. Part of the base is used for National Guard and Reserve training but that is about it.
One good thing about having winters like ours (in Canada) is that when summer does come here we take full advantage of the season. We are extremely active and all sorts of outdoor activities are popular. Oh yeah, regarding the cold, you get used to it and every once in a while you will have the experience I had recently. You step outside and the temperature is about -16C 0F and you think “Hey it isn’t that bad out.” Then you realize that it is still cold as hell and you are probably living some place where God didn’t really expect people to live.
Shivering in Saskatchewan:
Keith
P.S. Our current wind chill is -48 C or -53F
I think the idea that people just learn to cope with the expected terrible weather is correct. Analogously, in the 19th century, people were dropping like flies from infectious diseases, but that’s the only life they knew, so there was no point in going around griping about it. Now that we have some fairly easy prevention and cure techniques, we wonder how they ever could have lived, knowing that their babies had such a high chance of dying.
I grew up in Northeast Ohio, in the “Snow Belt”. Seems like I remember the ground being covered practically continuously from November to February. I remember one year a snowdrift in someone’s front yard that was at least 30 feet high; it covered a tree and when you climbed to the top, you could see about six inches of tree twigs sticking out. We used it as a sledding hill.
What used to bother me was that in that same part of the country, it would be 90 degrees and humid all summer. That’s just not right; if we had to put up with the snow and cold in the winter, at least we should have been entitled to comfortable summers.
I recently moved to the San Francisco Bay Area. It’s never hotter than about 80 and never colder than about 45, at least during the day. And it’s always sunny! It’s like having a great weight lifted - a free bonus in life. Makes me chuckle to see these native Californians walking around in hats and gloves when it’s 50 degrees.
Here in Wisconsin snow and cold can’t stop us, it can only hope to contain us. 
Seriously when you live with it on a yearly basis it is no big deal. That’s why come the first 40 degree day in March you will see people in shorts. Hey, it’s 40 degrees warmer than it was just a short while ago.
If you live here you have 2 choices for dealing with it:
1.) Make friends with it. Ice Fishing, sledding, skiing(downhill & X-country), snow shoeing, snowmobiling, ice skating, snow ball fights etc… I wouldn’t give up the dramatic change of seasons we have in Wisconsin. They all have their advantages and disadvantages.
2.) Move south because the rest of us are sick of hearing you bitch about it.
On that note bring on the Buccaneers!!! Forecast is 5 degrees for Sunday. Of course they have to break that streak at some point…don’t they???
Hey Odieman - remember this?
“Well it’s 40 below and I don’t give a f**k,
got a heater in my truck,
and it’s off to the rodeeeooo!”
That pretty much sums up the Western Canada attitude towards winter. (I can’t believe I’ve used The Rodeo Song in two posts today!!!)
You learn to deal with it. The tire chains, a tow chain or strap, a shovel, jumper cables, and blankets in the car. A front-wheel drive vehicle will usually get through most snow fairly well, until you start plowing with the front bumper or spoiler.
You learn to play in it - snowmobiling, snowmen, snow angels, sledding, skiing. One guy I know claims to have skiied down the middle of a busy 4-lane street here in Lansing during one blizzard. And doing donuts in the parking lot of the mall is a time-honored tradition.
You learn to prepare for it. Stock up on canned or dry goods that you can cook over a camp or wood-burning stove if necessary; fill up the gas tank when the weatherman predicts a storm. Get an extra loaf of bread, a jar of peanut butter, and you’ll make it through. Don’t forget the schnapps!
Well, most learn how to live in snow. I always chuckle when I see a SUV or other 4WD vehicle in the ditch. Nine times out of 10, it’s fairly new, meaning the owner decided that since 4WD can make you go fast, it must make you stop quickly, too. I remember hoping to have the behind-the-wheel portion of my driver’s ed classes in the winter, so that I could have more time driving in snow.
I’m really glad you posted this, Keith; lends perspective. (I live in northern IL–where it’s snowing again, but almost above zero (F)!) Around here when a cold front blasts through it’s called an Alberta Clipper. Okay, different province but you get the idea.
It’s all true: you get used to it, adapt and take sensible precautions. And oddly enough, icy winters have their own beauty–but it makes spring soooo miraculous! I do believe we appreciate that more. When the air softens a bit and those first hints of green start appearing…aahhhh.
Veb
Sorry I haven’t yet replied to your latest Email, G. Nome. My guy with the computer took off for home a few days ago.
Right now, it’s snowing. It’s been snowing on and off, moderately heavily, for the last two weeks. It’s not cold, by my standards, but the roads are kind of slick and messy. I had to go out today after it started snowing again, and most roads were clear, but some, boy howdy!
I hate coats. I refuse to wear coats. If it’s cold, I’ll wear a sweatshirt with a hood. Fie on coats! Because of this, my tolerance to cold is considered somewhat amazing (but only by pansies).
When I fueled up today, some guy who worked there (out for a smoke break) hollered to me “Hey, cut that out! You’re making the rest of us look bad!” (referring to my wearing just a long sleeved t-shirt) in between tooth chatters. After I paid, when I came back out, he hollered “You from Minnesota or something crazy like that?” I just shook my head, “Yeah, Minnesota,” and rolled my eyes. It was only 30 degrees. Sheesh.
–Tim
Well, there’s currently about 2-3’ snow on the ground right now depending on where you are and it shows no sign of going away any time soon, so I think you’re set. Unless you mean “pissed” in the drunken sense, in which case, we’re all over that one too 
To continue the hijack…
Not necessarily the trees on base, LouisB, but the banyans in Homestead itself and along Old Cutler Road. They reminded me of how elms used to look up here before Dutch Elm disease wiped them out - Damn you, Coldfire!
Hi, G.Nome. I’ll echo what most in this thread have said about winter weather. When you grow up with it, you’re just used to it, and you know how to handle it.
I grew up in New York, so I was used to snow. Life goes on, because your city, town, or county is equipped to deal with it. Most people know the rules of the road for driving in it, too.
Now I live in North Alabama, which is considered the South here in the US, but it’s north enough that we get some weather, too. This morning, it was 10 degrees F, and we’re expecting our third dose of snow in four days. Let me tell you, what DAVEW0071 said about Memphis is just as true here. The city (Huntsville) is just not equipped to handle snow or ice. All schools, and most businesses (except mine, of course :rolleyes: ) close at the announcement of bad weather coming! And I swear, sometimes I think the local TV talking-weather-heads own stock in the local grocery stores. The slightest hint of snow and the stores are jammed with people buying bread and milk. Cripes, it’s pathetic.
One inch of snow in a Southern city is as bad as 12 inches up north. People just don’t understand the concept that the roads are slippery. To make matters worse, most roads don’t have guard rails along them like the main northern roadways do, so all you see are cars spun off into ditches.
Since we also get tornadoes, I can tell you that it’s a little different than regular winter weather. I’ve been lucky since I moved here - no tornadoes near me, though I did see the evening sky turn green once, and it scared the shit out of me. The cats and dogs all hid, and I knew right then I was going to die. It blew over, but you realize that all of your belongings could be gone in an instant, and it’s scary. People down here tell me they couldn’t deal with all the snow up north. I tell them that at least when the snow melts, your house is still standing 
Nah Joph, tried that on the flight to Oz, but after a while, the stewards start to diplomatically ignore that idiot trying to get drunk. hey, it was for medicinal purposes, kind of a sleeping pill in dilute liquid form;)
You are all amazingly stoical. The “weather” face America presents to the world through the entertainment industry is so different to all of this. Most people only know the U.S.A. though television and they know it never snowed on The Wonder Years and that there were never any tornadoes on Party of Five. In fact, I remember watching Eight is Enough and wondering why the wind never blew. Northern Exposure must be the only programme in which weather has even existed.
It has only snowed heavily on the city I live in once in 30 years. No-one knew what to do about it - like, what’s a snowplough? It was gone in three days though. Afterwards I remember talking with some people who were suddenly unsure about how American houses could all have front doors that opened right into their living areas (like they always do on TV). Is that a stage set thing or not? And I know a lot of guys, to this day, have respect for Russians, Canadians, Americans or whoever it is that manages to get their car engines started after they’ve been out in the snow all night.
You’re right. Maybe the TV writers can’t relate to those in the Heartland because they all live in sunny Southern California!
I think people foreign to the U.S. realise it gets cold somewhere at sometime in the United States but I don’t know if they see hardship as being a common result of that.
It’s a strange thought, I know, but if the realities of living in America were more “upfront” your entertainment would perhaps lose the anodyne quality that it has. It has to be said in all seriousness: sometimes the best antidote to stress and upset in the world is a Pauly Shore movie - or any movie possessing that sort of innocuousness. Whether it’s Kids in the Hall, Kingpin, whatever - they are immensely valuable in a medicinal sense.
G. Nome
Just finished two weeks of minus 35C… with wind-chill as low as minus 45C. And I am smiling, I love it. Here on the Canadian prairies, it is an arid cold. We occasionally get major snowfalls that shut everything down, but most of the time it is just very, very cold. I much prefer minus 35C in Calgary to minus 10C in eastern Canada… where it is a damp penetrating cold…
Dress appropriately (multiple layers, high insultation value fabrics) and it is wonderful outside… everything sounds different - when it colds enough the snow makes a high pitched sound when you walk on it, there is an indescribable sharp smell in the air (like most smells, you can’t really describe it, you have to experience it) and clear sunny winter days have the clearest brightest light of the year…
Personally, I would much rather deal with the cold and snow than the heat… I have tried to explain it to people this way: when it is too hot outside, and you manage to find someplace to cool off, you experience simple relief… when it is cold out and you find a source of heat, it is a positive pleasure. Much more fun to put your hands up to a fireplace or radiator than it is to a fan or air conditioner…