Don't let mere snow turn you into an abject sadsack! And, especially, don't infect children with snow-depression. Somebody wrest that child away from that lady and take him sledding. My kids are grown, so I don't get to go sledding anymore. An adult can't just go sledding. If you have a kid and it's snowing, you should realize how lucky you are. The day will come when it will snow and you will wish you had a little kid so you could play outside doing kid things.
Posts
94 comments:
If it bleeds, it leads, and if it doesn't bleed, make it so...
How can this be possible when the planet is burning up with a fever?
HD: You should know by now that snow is caused by global warming.
It may be the "Gore Effect". He may be visiting the North East.
Sheesh! My grandchildren are too old to go sledding with me.
My kids went sledding last week, when the snow was fresh. Too bad we're not in Milwaukee. All that snow they're getting today? I bet the sledding down the bluff to the Lake is sweet today.
One benefit of global cooling is "snow days" when people in Atlanta use slippery roads to declare an extra day off. It seems that Mondays and Fridays are the first snow days to be called by the local powers, while a light dusting on a Wednesday is usually ignored.
Good powder for skiing here in NJ.
Too bad I'm at work.
;-(
Where is it written that adults cannot go sledding? Granted, many, if not most, would look foolish, but hey, whatever floats your boat.
Where is it written that adults cannot go sledding?
Just above you! I quote Prof. Althouse: An adult can't just go sledding.
:)
If you want to sled, then sled.
No - That's just when I go snowboarding. More fun that sledding.
I guess kids aren't what they used to be.
When I was a kid, our parents forced us out of the house to play in the Rocky Mountain snows for 4 - 5 hours on end.
I could have been up to our necks - it didn't matter. Playing in the deep snow was good for you. It made you tough.
When we took our kids sledding here in Omaha, there was a group of four or five couples sledding. All were 50-60 years old. They said this was their "first annual sledding party." They were having a blast.
I don't sled or snowboard but I love the snow. Great for wandering around taking pictures. Hilariously, my college decided to close today (perhaps understandable since so many of the students commute from out of town) so I'm putting on my waterproof Mephistos and taking the Leica out for a stroll.
Here in New England people love to complain about the weather, but after spending a couple of winters in Iowa I can't take them seriously any more.
Oh, and the picture has a caption:
"Linda Young, 42 hold her son Texas Young, 9 on her lap Friday Jan. 30, 2009 at the Crittenden County Elementary School in Marion, Ky. that is been used as an emergency shelter. The town of Marion has been without power and water for three days after being hit with ice and snow. (AP Photo/ Daniel R. Patmore)"
Might not be quite as fun in rural Kentucky in a shelter than it is in Madison or New York City. Kentucky has been having some problems, not that the news media or the government seems to care.
The mother and son in that picture have been through a little more than a snowstorm. They've lost power for three days and the picture was taken in a public shelter. Still, she sure looks a wreck for someone only 42 years old.
Palladian beat me to it. Darn.
You are NEVER too old to go sledding. Anybody who can wear a hat like that can go sledding if she damn well wants to.
In Canada, we believe it's when you STOP sledding that you start to go downhill...
#4 in the Wisdom from the Great White North series (where one can go sledding eight months of the year).
I predict a new kind of female clock ticking in the future years: women who get about sixty (the boomer ones who remember large family fun with sisters, brothers, parents, cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandparents and also remember the emergence of women competive sports in their highschools) and either don't have grandkids or who haven't kept active enough to go sledding with grandkids and wish a return to that kind of family bliss with all it's troubles. Is that sad?
Cue Tom Chapin to start the music:
cousins, cousins, here come the boys... bedlam, mayhem, noise, noise noise. Blow up the air mattresses , hide the breakable toys, cousins, cousins here come the boys.
or maybe shovelin, shovelin, all night long. Sing it Tom.
St. Paul got hit with 6-8 inches of snow last Thursday, starting around noon and ending in the evening. You might be thinking that would lead to a snow day on Friday (or even an early release on Thursday) but no. The roads were plowed and school started on time on Friday.
Yesterday the boy and I enjoyed a snowball fight. It's great when the kids get old enough you can actually aim at them.
Sleddding is for little kids. Take the car to an empty parking lot and do donuts. Better yet, put the top down while you're at it.
Oh, wait, you have front wheel drive? Never mind.
Palladian does make a good point, but the picture is still overly dramatic...methinks...
Knowing where Marion, KY is, I would be willing to bet big bucks that poor mom has been without power for longer this winter than I have cumulatively over the course of my whole life.
Speaking of which, I am a Kentuckian - the only non-native New Englander in my office. I'm the only one that's made it in so far. Silly me - I thought if I could shovel it and drive in it, surely these hardy Yankees could.
Snow Pussies indeed. LOL.
When I was a kid, our parents forced us out of the house to play in the Rocky Mountain snows for 4 - 5 hours on end.
When I was a kid (2nd grade)we lived in Dunsmuir and the whole town got snowed in. This was before I-5 and the only way we could get food or supplies to the town was via helicopter because even the trains couldn't make it through the passes.
All the kids thought it was great!!. The only way to get into some houses was through the second story or tunnels dug in the snow. My brother and I made an igloo out of packed snow and it lasted all winter long until the top caved in when my brother climbed on top. It was a great play house. We spent hours outside in the snow and loved it.
I don't think my parents were that enthralled however, since we moved to Seal Beach the next year.
To be serious, it IS bad to be without power, heat, water in those circumstances unless you are very prepared with back up heat (wood stove, kerosene, lanterns) and a stock of easily prepared food. Unfortunately, most people today are just not prepared for any outages that last more than a few hours.
Several years ago the Cincinnati Enquirer ran a story on a poor pitiful woman and her kids who were stuck in their house for 3 or 4 days due to a snow storm. The catch was they were the wife and kids of one of the wealthiest builders around, lived in a mansion, had power and plenty of food but couldn't get out because their quarter of a mile driveway was too icy. I can't believe anyone publishes stories like this.
How can this be possible when the planet is burning up with a fever?
I will note that McCallen, TX had its earliest ever 100+ degree reading on Sunday. (Previous first 100+: March 6 (in 1956))
"I thought if I could shovel it and drive in it, surely these hardy Yankees could."
You haven't been in New England long, have you, rocketeer? Except for a bit of northern New Hampshire, northern Maine and western Massachusetts, we bitch a lot about snow - and boast of how we made it through the Blizzard of '78 stuck out at the ass end of the Stockbridge toll with only a stale cruller and a cold cup of Dunkin's for a week - but the blood has diluted. I've come into work after driving through snow that barely crested my tire treads to find a message board full of "can't get out, stuck in my driveway" wails.
But good for you for being there. Gives you bragging rights.
(oh, BTW rocketeer - did you hear governor "Cadillac" Deval Patrick, announce that all 'non-emergency' state workers should not come in until 12.00 noon? You think YOU'RE the only one in your office? Try getting a state hack to come in today after Deval's get out of jail free card.
A lot of poeple in the South do not have central heating, you unsympathetic scold.
And I'm sure your candy-ass boys would still go sledding.
I awakened to 12 degrees and 11 inches of snow this morning. It was a thin band right along Lake Michigan. A couple of miles west and there was nothing.
I figured Al Gore was in Milwaukee giving a speech today.
Maybe we have to share him with the East Coast.
Wow, they must really think that's a great picture the way they're trying to ride it. They were using that pic back when it was actually taken during the ice storms we had a month ago.
FEMA doing an excellent clean up job, BTW.
My wife's daily driver for the past d3ecade or so has been a Mazda Miata convertible. Several, actually, as she leases a different one every three years or so.
The car is driven year 'round. I mount winter tires in all, and remove then in spring.
We drive the car with the top down during non-slushy snow storms. We both have down coats, thick mittens and fur hats (fox and raccoon). The top goes down, the heater is cranked up, music on the radio, and off we go.
Maybe it's adult sledding, I don't know, but it is great fun, especially seeing the wide-eyed expressions on the faces of other drivers.
What we really want next is a Ural. That would be awesome in the snow!
@Jim - I'm in New Berlin, no snow, clear skies. It sounds like your part of WI is actually in Buffalo, NY.
Several years ago the Cincinnati Enquirer ran a story on a poor pitiful woman and her kids who were stuck in their house for 3 or 4 days due to a snow storm. The catch was they were the wife and kids of one of the wealthiest builders around, lived in a mansion, had power and plenty of food but couldn't get out because their quarter of a mile driveway was too icy. I can't believe anyone publishes stories like this.
I can't believe they didn't have a groundskeeper or someone, who could salt the driveway for them. Or even just put some chains on their tires.
did you hear governor "Cadillac" Deval Patrick, announce that all 'non-emergency' state workers should not come in until 12.00 noon?
I heard it was "non-critical" state workers on WBZ - which leads me to ask: couldn't we cut a lot of fat out of the state budget if we got rid of all those "non-critical" workers? They apparently even self-select, so there's no need for a review of who's critical and who's not...
If you are too old or dignified to sled, try the stock market. It can take you downhill very fast.
I've been looking at the I-43 webcams. Good Hope Road? Hampton? Nice and Sunny. Get down to the airport, grey skies and snow everywhere!
Gotta love a lake effect band.
The Weather Channel radar was really cool this morning. As everyone's saying, a thin, thin stationary band of snow along the entire Lake Michigan shore. North (e.g. Manitowoc) it was out in the lake. By Milwaukee, it had come ashore.
It's great when the kids get old enough you can actually aim at them.
LOL. That was great.
Here in the Great State of AZ, we're going to hit 90 degrees today.
I think snow is lovely in photographs and can be really fun to visit and play in. I'm very grateful that I don't live where it snows anymore. We moved from MA in early '95, just after one of the most brutal winters. We had ice storms and snow storms every week. I vividly remember standing in my driveway with a shoveful of snow, wondering where I was going to put it. The snowbanks around the driveway were nearly as tall as me. I ended up pitching the snow over them into the backyard, swearing that at the first possible opportunity, I was going to buy a snowblower.
Then we decided to move to AZ. The last time I had to deal with snow was in Dec '07 when I just missed a huge storm flying out of Boston after a quick visit. My daughter especially gripes that she never gets to see snow, but she thinks 65 degrees and raining is really cold. Her romantic notions of snow would quickly dissipate, but she doesn't care.
It's not as if there's a shortage of snow around. Maybe next year we'll go visit some.
"The day will come when it will snow and you will wish you had a little kid so you could play outside doing kid things."
Wow! That's a pathetic attitude.
You apparently don't hang with the right kind of adults - those who have childish fun and don't give a rat what others think. Those who wear shorts.
Joan, your story reminded me of one.
Years ago in K.C., we had more than a foot of fall. I went out, shoveled my walk, my 100 year old neighbor's walk and the space in front of my house so I could park when I got home from an event.
I got home and the gal across the street had parked there. Her tracks didn't even wander. Down the middle of the street and straight to my spot. It was 1AM.
Well, I thought that since I didn't need the spot any more, I didn't need the excess snow on my curb. So I put it back.
Then I got up extra early and had coffee and watched her face as she found the snow right back where I got it, under her car.
Her boyfriend and someone else spent about an hour and a half scooping the now frozen snow out from under her car and when she started to get in, I walked out with coffee in hand and asked her if she really thought I'd shoveled the space in front of my house clear for her convenience.
Ahh.
Geroge E. A lot of poeple in the South do not have central heating
Uhmmmmm. South where?
Besides *not* having central heating is a good thing when there is a power outage ... You throw another log in the woodstove.
Blizzard of 1993 -- remember? March. Covered the Southeast. Couple feet of snow someplaces. Then the temperature dropped to the single digits. Couldn't even play outside it was so cold for several days.
Threw the usual logs in the stove. Lit the Coleman lantern at night. Water kept running, had no frozen pipes. The central heating folks were hurting.
Turns out we did not have central heating, but why do you say "a lot" of people ... we were the odd ones.
Ann The day will come when it will snow and you will wish you had a little kid so you could play outside doing kid things.
So true.
Couldn't even play outside it was so cold for several days.
What a nonsense sentence.
Snow Day! The schools are closed in NYC and it feels like a holiday, as snow days always do. My kids refuse to go sledding (they're teenagers) and while I wouldn't let that stop me from sledding it's just as much fun to take the dog to the park and let him run around. My son and I did that this morning and it was great. Moral of this story: get a dog. They're always ready to have fun; they never really grow up. Now we'll have the greatest snow day lunch of all, grilled cheese sandwiches and Campbell's cream of tomato soup. I'll bake a cake later and we'll watch old movies this afternoon. A perfect day.
I want to see an Althouse Snow Angel!
Oligonicella thinks it's pathetic that Ann wrote The day will come when it will snow and you will wish you had a little kid so you could play outside doing kid things.
I can also read it that she would need a kid to play outside, but I think it's not all about ME (or Ann?) getting to play ... it's playing with a *kid* (preferably more than one, two or more always works better) in the snow.
Adults can ski, or snowboard -- or something done in the south -- tube (some developed tubing courses make their own snow). It's the delight of the kids that is special.
Building a snowman together works i you haven't got a hill.
I could not tell you how many hours the kids on our street spent OUTSIDE in the winter. We used to take over one road in our neighborhood which was a steep hill (cars couldn't make it up it and there was another way around). When there wasn't snow we skated on the swampy little pond behind the house.
I am sympathetic to the lady stuck inside with the kid though. What a sad face! It would be nice if she could make it something the kid remembers in a fun way.
But we seem to becoming a people who need something or someone outside of us to enteratain us or fix us or sooth us or rescue us.
We *have* become a nation of pussies.
MadisonMan said...
Couldn't even play outside it was so cold for several days.
What a nonsense sentence.
The wind chill was sub zero.
JAL: Couldn't even play outside it was so cold for several days.
MM: What a nonsense sentence.
Give em' a break, MM. Single digits is tough on the bare feet.
(As Leno would say. "Don't write me a letter".)
"I am sympathetic to the lady stuck inside with the kid though. What a sad face!..."
I'm not too sympathetic. If you have kids, you should know how to do things with them indoors. It's easy to play indoors with kids. Games, books, movies, cooking together, even doing housework chores can all be fun and highly rewarding. If you are sitting around whining and moping, you are teaching them absolutely the wrong things.
We actually have fur on our feet.
But it was still a bit frosty on the other exposed skin surfaces.
If you are sitting around whining and moping, you are teaching them absolutely the wrong things.
Yeah, you're teaching them how to act like Republicans!
We actually have fur on our feet.
The Shire is down South? Makes sense, actually.
Ackkk!!
What happened to my post about the lady not bringing along a deck of cards or the kid's matchbox cars and trucks?
I still feel some sympathy -- maybe feel sorry is better -- for the lady in the sense that she probably does not know how or what to play with a bored kid after days.
A deck of cards is pretty useful. Don't even need to have gold fisheies on them. (All my adult kids travel with a pack or two for those layovers in the airport.)
Surely the Red Cross has some stuff to do? But it really is Mom's job. I just am not sure she knows how to play herself.
Maybe President Obama will send her some games or toys. Or books. (He could come read a book to this kid.) Or matchbox cars.
Or maybe mittens.
Gee, it looks like a good opportunity to let the little guys know that this is the day when the temperatures will rise, the checks will be in the mail, and the snow will cease.
Or is it the oceans will recede, the air will be pristene, and the feds will go through our pockets for loose change to make sure they didn't miss anything?
Either way, make sure you ascribe the miracle to President Jeebus. You don't want to teach your kids to act like republicans.
I thought he would make the whole country like Hawaii. I'm so disappointed.
"Yeah, you're teaching them how to act like Republicans!"
I'd rather politicians sat around whining and doing nothing than actively fucking up the country, spending my money and further tightening the government's choke-hold on Liberty's throat.
But still, another memorable and thoroughly creative zinger from that brilliant cad MadisonMan!
Instead of moping around indoors during the storm, Obama's taking the entire staff of United States Government, Inc. on a luxury ski holiday and signing the bill "The American People".
Limbaugh sez conservatives can't win with better policy ideas. Newt Gingrich is a bad idea factory. God I love Republican on Republican violence.
I'd rather politicians sat around whining and doing nothing than actively fucking up the country, spending my money and further tightening the government's choke-hold on Liberty's throat.
Palladian, hate to break it to you, but that's exactly what the GOP was doing for lo these many years. Did you somehow miss that?
Palladian, hate to break it to you, but that's exactly what the GOP was doing for lo these many years. Did you somehow miss that?
So in other words, we're getting Bush's third term.
Snow days are good days to Pinch a Long Loaf.
This is taking fuck up to a whole new level.
moping around indoors during the storm, Obama's taking the entire staff of United States Government, Inc. on a luxury ski holiday and signing the bill "The American People".
Not only that Palladian but Obama likely caused this storm so all the fat ass federal workers could take the day off. Obama sucks.
When the GOP was in charge things were going great. Now things suck. Snow is coming down right now and liberals suck. Get with it Beth.
"Palladian, hate to break it to you, but that's exactly what the GOP was doing for lo these many years. Did you somehow miss that?"
Uh, duh? Why do you think I said "further tightening". Though Obama's shopping spree makes the GOP look like rank amateurs.
Liberals also force Palladian to the buffet. Oinkey Woinkey.
"Not only that Palladian but Obama likely caused this storm so all the fat ass federal workers could take the day off. Obama sucks."
As I said, you're too stupid to do sarcasm. Stick to your puerile shit-gazing and imaginary assignations, it's the only thing you do well. Which of course isn't saying much.
"Liberals also force Palladian to the buffet. Oinkey Woinkey."
Do you inform your tricks that you're HIV positive?
Since we're getting personal here.
Give me some love you hefty hideaway model Palladian.
Special chubby hug.
Hey Titus-how's your Biotech stock hangin'?
JAL --
I can also read it that she would need a kid to play outside...
"My kids are grown, so I don't get to go sledding anymore. An adult can't just go sledding."
That would be why I did. It is pitiable -- do you prefer that variant? -- that adults stop playing so much. One of the most miserable sentences in human history is that "I put away childish things" pap.
My biotech stock is horrible.
Palladian's two tons of fun, she has committed the gay cardinal sin but we still love every inch of her!
What is the gay cardinal sin?
"What is the gay cardinal sin?"
Titus is suggesting that being fat is the "gay cardinal sin", see, because I'm fat and people like titus think that fat jokes hurt people's feelings. But titus forgets that I'm an adult, have a happy life and an adorable boyfriend and that I don't much care if someone calls me fat. I forgive him this; after all, it's probably difficult for people stuck in an infantile stage of mental and emotional development to even conceive of other people as adults.
Ah. Well as I like to say my fat is all potential muscle.
Original Mike originally wrote: The Shire is down South? Makes sense, actually.
Mmmmm.... I don't recall that it snowed in the Shire, did it?
Though they had wonderfully big firplaces to throw papers and a certain ring into ...
"Ah. Well as I like to say my fat is all potential muscle."
Or extra brains that don't fit in the skull.
OR,
you could move here to Arizona and go outside in the pleasant sunshine with your tee shirt on and listen to the birds singing.
Snow? That's so there, not here.
My son goes to college in Boston-- and they canceled all classes! In Boston!
What would the Pilgrims have said?
Maybe they should just shut down colleges for the winter.
What would the Pilgrims have said?
I'm guessing something like, "I coulda been quaffin' a pint in the Sow's Ear right about now. What was I thinking?!"
"My son goes to college in Boston-- and they canceled all classes! In Boston!
What would the Pilgrims have said?"
I'm sure that if they were to visit present-day Boston for the afternoon there would be many things they'd want to comment on far more urgently than the cancellation of college classes.
I'm pretty sure that if they were to visit present-day Boston for the afternoon half of them would be pointing and screaming "Witch! Witch!".
The other half would be curled up on the sidewalk in the fetal position, sucking their thumb.
Eli Blake wrote:
you could move here to Arizona and go outside in the pleasant sunshine with your tee shirt on and listen to the birds singing.
Then he hummed to the tune of Horse with No Name:
You see I've been through the desert with only Cheney to blame,
It feels good now, to be the reign,
In the desert you can remember the shame,
'cause there ain't no One who be takin' the blame..
nah, naaah, nah, nah-nana nah-blaah bla bla bla blaah blah...
:)
"I'm pretty sure that if they were to visit present-day Boston for the afternoon half of them would be pointing and screaming "Witch! Witch!".
The other half would be curled up on the sidewalk in the fetal position, sucking their thumb."
Funny, I end up doing both of those things when I visit present-day Boston.
Yeah, last time I was in Boston the cab driver had me curled up in the back seat sucking my thumb.
Hey I took the day off because of the snow.
Doesn't look like I missed much.
Oh and since spring training has started, let me be the first to say"
BOSTON SUCKS!
Thank you.
Trooper York BOSTON SUCKS!
Spoken like a true Yankees fan.
Post a Comment