Arlo and Janis by Jimmy Johnson for January 09, 2022

Well gee Arlo, grab your keys and you coat. Don’t let the door hit you.

Son in Nashville still can’t get over how Southerners overreact to a dusting of snow.

I remember shopping during a whiteout. I guess some people don’t know a whiteout is a snowstorm.

Say what you want about us northerners. A little bit of snow doesn’t phase us. Schools aren’t even delayed for less than 6 inches of snow fall the night before.

Hoping they’re selling better winter apparel and tools in the South in winter, states are more prepared, and the power grids stay operational. Neither decades of driving through Midwestern winters nor trips to the mountains out West prepared me for what it was like to drive when winter storms hit the South. There’s always untreated ice under the snow and no equipment to help. When I lived there, was glad I brought my winter gear with me. They often didn’t sell actual winter apparel or the insulation in coats or gloves just wasn’t the same in areas that don’t experience deep freeze temps as often. Saw people on social media sharing winter preparedness and emergency power outage tips since early fall. Good luck everyone.

I like how even as JJ’s being a wiseacre here, he’s made a list of things for people to have on hand to be prepared for the next winter storm.

Grocery stores around here are always packed the day before a snow storm. But not if it’s only going to be a dusting (2 inches or less).

I went to the market the day before a snowstorm. Not because of the storm, I just needed stuff like bread. It was supposed to snow 4". There were 5 loaves left! Didn’t need milk, don’t really use much, if any.

We had a DJ here in Atlanta who once said “To heck with the bread and milk! Go get beer and pizza!” (Gary McKee of WQXI “Quicksie in Dixie” who I once heard was the muse for Dr. Johnny Fever on WKRP).

French toast alert!

He gave you all the clues! 8^ )

As a comment on something other than snow: Janice is going to go to the “market.” Where I live (upstate NY), most people say they are going to the “store.” And the same when I lived in northern Virginia. So, a regional thing, sort of like soda versus pop? If so, what areas of the country say “market” instead of something else?

One of my early childhood memories is a snowstorm in Illinois (1956) and our father took pity on us and drove us the mile and a half to school. The principal was on the school steps saying school is closed because of the snow, as we watched our father drive away. We had to walk home.

Also, get extra gas and toilet paper to keep in your car, in case you need to take I-95 to DC.

Close the schools for any amount of snow. Let kids sled, ice skate, make snow angels, make snow forts, get frozen noses, fingers and toes, make some pocket money shoveling walkways and yes even throw snowballs! They’re only kids for a short period of time! There’s plenty of time in life for learning in school and becoming an adult. I say when it snows any amount, let them be kids and enjoy it!

I grew up in Chicago and had lived in Idaho and Connecticut before moving to SC. A dusting shut everything down and people at work marveled that I was able to drive there. The biggest issue were the people who couldn’t drive in snow and might hit you.

Most of the time in the Pacific Northwest, we get precipitation OR freezing weather. Moisture comes off of the ocean, but cold comes from Canada. Once in a while, the air streams swirl together and we get snow and/or ice. Then people go sledding in their magical 4×4 SUVs. Physics is a cruel teacher.

Half an inch of snow? That is just flurries, not even worth mentioning. Only 1.27 CM. In Maritime Canada we can get 40 CM (15.7 Inches) on Monday, the same on Wednesday and 60 CM ( 23.6 inches) …and no ones misses a day of work.

We keep evaporated milk on hand. Not the greatest reconstituted to drink but fine for cooking, on cereal, in smoothies, and good as coffee creamer straight from the can, etc. Dry eggs are lousy when reconstituted to eat but I have some of them as well for cooking. Also, Jiffy baking mix. Using dry milk, dry eggs and Jiffy mix, one can make biscuits to replace bread. (and I did, often in 2020, not wanting to pay for food delivery much) One miserable ice storm long ago had us melting snow on the gas range in stockpots for washing up in when the water lines to the apartment we lived in were frozen/broken. Gotta get creative :)

Solution: Arlo, go to the store

Well Arlo, you can drive. Go shopping by yourself. That way you can get what you really want.

Oh, it’s not just Southerners. I live in a town that often gets a foot or two of snow every winter, and it is amazing how many people here forget over the summer that ice and snow are slick…

Arlo could’ve offered to drive her!

Half an inch?? Around hear that means things are getting better.

It’s -30c and I still have to clean off one driveway, Wednesday is supposed to be zero-ish for a few days

Hoard all the toilet paper you can find!

Maybe Arlo should just do it himself.

Gotchaaaaaa

No milk is reason to go to the store all by itself.

It’s interesting to try to walk through 30+ inches of snow for a few miles. New snow.

You want a grocery run? Ok, get off your azz and go. I’ll take a bottle of Chardonnay and some brie.

Some places in Texas last night were getting 2-4 inches of rain in an hour. I can imagine for those who will get feet of snow further north.

I was visiting my dad in OK a few years ago and they got 16" of snow overnight. The small town he lived in didn’t even own a snow plow. The whole area came to a screeching halt. (A normal snow for the area is about two inches.) I was supposed to fly home from Tulsa and the airport was closed for two days.

Eather people are in league with supermarkets and anyone who sells groceries

Husband is a panicker about this also. Even worse – we have a lot of food we bought in March or May 2020 due to the pandemic as “we need to have it” but have not touched yet and when anything is used it has to be replaced.

Since in normal times we eat lunch out daily as well as 3 dinners a week – there is a heck of lot of food here for us to have when life goes back to more normal. I have 3/4 of a loaf of white bread in the freezer for over a year as we keep buying new and never getting back to using this started one which was going past date, so we froze to defrost use by use, but then bought new bread right away and never got back to it. Let alone the foods we don’t eat, but he bought so we would have food when we need it.