Grouse du Jour

It's not as if we need another thing to support the reality of global warming, but I have one: We're forgetting how to deal with snow. We have had two snows this winter here in southern Vermont and both of them shut the schools, canceled public meetings, and moved dentist appointments. It didn't use to be like this. I grew up in Michigan where in order to have a snow day the cars had to actually be unable to move, perhaps not even visible. Short of that, people were expected to shovel themselves out, get their kids to school and their own butts to work. Tire chains, short shovels, and buckets of sand were an accessory in every trunk. Child-eating snow alligators were common. Okay, I made up that last part.

It may be that winters are so less severe than they used to be that we've lost our nerve and gumption to move and move through snow. And with the 24 hour news and weather channels so amplifying the drama of any kind of inclement weather that every dark cloud is a calamity in waiting, I think we've forgotten how utterly ordinary it is to live in snow. Four inches of the stuff closed the schools here yesterday. I'm sorry, but that's just embarrassing.