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What? Snow? How... Boring.
Feb. 21st, 2011 09:45 amThe excitment over various "snowpocalypses" is so yesterday. And yet, what did we get on Sunday? More snow. Blah, blah, a dozen or more inches. Blah, blah, I struggled to get my car out. Blah, blah, everything is white and almost beautiful, but completely buried.
It's hard to compete, too, when people who have never seen snow in their lives, like in Atlanta, are dealing with stuff we get every day around here. AND, on top of that, people are out there protesting in blizzard conditions.
On that note, I had an interesting exchange with a neighbor who helped me unstick my car from the roundabout. I'd rolled down the window to talk about the stupid rain that we're getting on top of the ten inches of snow, and he said, "You know, for all the crappy weather we get, we ought to have a higher standard of living in exchange." I'm sure he was thinking about Norway or Sweden, but my first thought was, "We did. Before Pawlenty. Before Michele Bachmann and the other crazy teabaggers." And it made me think about why people are taking to the streets in Madison. Having decent wages and good schools with happy teachers and fire fighters and police officers and garbage pick-up and decent wages and good health care and dozens of other services that union employees provide *is* what we trade-off for living here and putting up with the winter.
My mother wrote from Texas where they snow-bird in a trailer park. Before Madison exploded, she was talking about how garbage seems to pile up outside of businesses there in Texas and no one cares, and how ALIEN that is to a Wisconsinite like her. She said something like, "I guess we're just more civic-minded in Wisconsin."
I'd say. :-)
One thing I have to do (on top of making my 2,000 word quota for Tate) is write another Mouse vingnette for y'all to have tomorrow. I was smart to have done those three ahead of time, and now I'm totally feeling the pressure. Though I think I'll use it as the carrot to my stick. If I get Tate done quickly, I'll write some Mouse.
Shawn is home today since she's one of those "privledged" government employees. She's sitting across from me rather grimly balancing the check book. Yeah, we totally live the high life. (Not.)
It's hard to compete, too, when people who have never seen snow in their lives, like in Atlanta, are dealing with stuff we get every day around here. AND, on top of that, people are out there protesting in blizzard conditions.
On that note, I had an interesting exchange with a neighbor who helped me unstick my car from the roundabout. I'd rolled down the window to talk about the stupid rain that we're getting on top of the ten inches of snow, and he said, "You know, for all the crappy weather we get, we ought to have a higher standard of living in exchange." I'm sure he was thinking about Norway or Sweden, but my first thought was, "We did. Before Pawlenty. Before Michele Bachmann and the other crazy teabaggers." And it made me think about why people are taking to the streets in Madison. Having decent wages and good schools with happy teachers and fire fighters and police officers and garbage pick-up and decent wages and good health care and dozens of other services that union employees provide *is* what we trade-off for living here and putting up with the winter.
My mother wrote from Texas where they snow-bird in a trailer park. Before Madison exploded, she was talking about how garbage seems to pile up outside of businesses there in Texas and no one cares, and how ALIEN that is to a Wisconsinite like her. She said something like, "I guess we're just more civic-minded in Wisconsin."
I'd say. :-)
One thing I have to do (on top of making my 2,000 word quota for Tate) is write another Mouse vingnette for y'all to have tomorrow. I was smart to have done those three ahead of time, and now I'm totally feeling the pressure. Though I think I'll use it as the carrot to my stick. If I get Tate done quickly, I'll write some Mouse.
Shawn is home today since she's one of those "privledged" government employees. She's sitting across from me rather grimly balancing the check book. Yeah, we totally live the high life. (Not.)