Monday, February 11, 2013

My Journey Through the Blizzard

As you may know, there was a blizzard a few days ago. Every time I looked up, there was a special on it... on The Weather Channel. I know that would be the one place it where it's legitimate to see a report on a blizzard, but still. The frequency of its appearance was for a good reason, so I had to prepare.



Due to how serious this blizzard was supposed to be, I knew I had to take action. I sought out to go grocery shopping so that we can have enough food to last us a week (possibly longer) until the snow melted. My goal was to get in the car and drive through the traffic of people who had the same goal as me: empty the shelves of its food and beverages for my home. Unfortunately, I had homework to finish, and technically it's "illegal" for me to drive right now. So I had to wait until I finished my work, and for someone to drive me to the store.

Eventually, I made it to the grocery store. It was the most crowded I have ever seen the place. We were lucky to even get a shopping cart (there were plenty of shopping carts). It was too late to get produce. The only thing fruit left was bananas. (Actually, it's the other way around. There was anything BUT bananas.)

Out if all the things we had to get, there was one thing that was absolutely mandatory: chips. I made my way to the organic section, avoiding the "throng" of people surrounding the gluten-free cereal, and found a big bag of Red Hot Blues. Spicy blue tortilla chips. Once I had a bag of these in the grip of my hands, I knew that I could survive the blizzard.

Next stop was Taco Bell, where we picked up a surplus of ingredients to last us in case of an emergency. Luckily for us, we reserved an order of pinto beans and guacamole the day before. We even picked up big bags of salt for the road and walkway. (We just needed something for dinner. There wasn't that many people there either. And we only got two burritos. The salt was little packets I intended on using for the humidifier.)

Alas, we had everything we needed for the storm. At this point, it was 4 p.m. And the most that happened was a fair amount of rain. All I could do was do some workouts in the basement to stay physically active during this time we have to be inside. (I used the computer and watched my little brother play while watching Sesame Street).

Later on that night, I looked out the window and witnessed the frosty precipitation begin the process of the blizzard. No going back now. I turned on the generator just in case. I didn't want to risk a power outage. Then I went to sleep, expecting the snow to prevent me from going anywhere the next day. (I actually just watched Netflix with my mother and ate some Red Hot Blues. We don't even have a generator. The last part was true: I couldn't imagine how much snow would be outside.)

The next morning, I woke up to the saturday morning sun. Then I bad an epiphany: how is the sun going to be out during a blizzard. So I looked out the window, and it looked like an estimated two inches of snow! I checked my many sources of information on the storm (Twitter, Instagram, and Viddy) and there were people who couldn't even get out of their door; here, there wasn't even any snow on the streets. So much for my bags of salt (packets).

So maybe I overestimated the strength of the blizzard where I am. From what I can tell, it was mostly in the New England area. I kind of confused Massachusetts with Maryland, so I thought we were close by. It probably would be a good idea to refresh my geographical awareness of the states.

My message to everyone who is reading this is: you can prepare for anything, but be 100% sure that whatever you're preparing for is in your area. Be sure that it will definitely affect you somehow. Whether it's a snow storm, or a mild case of frost, be ready for it. However, I do not wish my level of miscomprehension and overestimation on you. :-|

No comments:

Post a Comment