Hey, don’t forget that this week’s contest (to win a Sony Pocket Reader) is going on through Sunday night. This is a big prize with a longer-than-usual time period to get your entry in, so wouldn’t you feel silly if you somehow missed entering? You totally would.
As always, be sure to enter in the comments on the contest post. Leaving a comment on this post is reserved for anyone who wants to explain to me why a 20% chance of snow here in the south has sent the locals into a complete milk-and-bread-buying tizzy.
What? No eggs? You guys have things to learn about this stocking up process. Always think french toast and toilet paper. Looking at the weather maps, you may get plenty of practice. Sigh I’m hoping to not even open the outside door today, although I may have to bring in more wood and take out ashes, because tomorrow is supposed to be even more brutal. I know you will be OK, what with all of your former skills, just be kind to your neighbors, who have all of the fears (fear! of-the-cold!), accompanied by bewilderment.
I’m even further south(south AL) and they are closing some of our schools today at 12 for slight poss of snow. ha!
When I lived in TN I thought that Kroger sponsored the weather reports. You know, “You’ll probably die if we get a dusting of snow tonight so head to Kroger and stock up…”
i don’t understand the whole bread milk thing either it will just go bad and they are not yet predicting an ice age so in 1 or 2 days at most you can go shopping again
I am from South Dakota and we got the blizzard and 10 inches yesterday. Still in a blizzard today and windchill tonight at -45. Good luck with the coming weather!!!!
For reals! I’m in NC and we *might* get a whole entire inch according to the talking heads on TV.
Wait…we ARE out of milk…
I’m in S. Florida. Mention the word hurricane in the summer months and the exact same thing happens! All that’s left on the shelves is 3 cans of dented tuna and the nasty soups no one eats!
I have no nice words to say about weather frenzy right now. There was a small bit of ice this morning here in the Dallas area, mostly on over passes, but our school district closed for the entire day. The neighboring district just has a 2 hour delay. My husband was able to drive 45 minutes away for work without issue. I am working at home with the kids here and of course, not getting any real work done! So Mir, I’m there with you on the crazy…
Thanks for the contest reminder; I hadn’t yet answered and would have been sad to miss the chance!
We are in South Louisiana and people are acting like a hurricane is coming! And just because I am so special, our heat went out…and we have to wait for the parts because the unit is ancient.
I did hear that schools in GA were closed because it was too cold for the kids to play outside. Here in NH we have a little thing called “indoor recess” when it’s too cold to go outside. But pretty much if it’s 25 degrees or better the kids get bundled up and head out for a bit. the milk and bread thing cracks me up too, it happens here where we do get a lot of snow. I think people just want comfort food. But after losing power for 11 days last year from the ice storm I now believe that having an empty fridge with a stocked pantry is better. So many people lost A LOT of food last year because they stocked up!
Good Lord, Mir! 20% chance of snow means an opportunity to boost local tv news/weather ratings, clear grocery store shelves of essentials (there was a story on the Nashville news last night about milk being “BACK IN STOCK!” Are we in the former Soviet Block?!), allow schools not to heat their buildings for a day or two on the colder days of the new year, and a chance to boost local shopping revenues (particularly at malls) once the forecasted snow does NOT arrive. Can you tell we were predicted to get 1-3 inches today and everything closed for naught? I’m Yankee marooned in middle TN and this whole issue makes me insane. 🙂 Enjoy ATL– it’s the best!
Jen-LOL I had no idea us northerners were so innovative with our INDOOR RECESS! Our school was cancelled because we are being buried in snow in the Chicago area. All the businesses are still open though, always makes me wonder…
Here in ND, if you live in town, school is never canceled. Actual temp this morning here was 25 BELOW. The kids just don’t go outside for recess. It’s really a simple solution, although it isn’t easy to be a teacher on a no recess day.
One thing to think about with some of the non-normal-snow-getting states: they don’t always have the best thought out pipes and power system. There was a small ice storm in Georgia umpteen years ago that left me (a born and bred NoDak) wondering why on earth they canceled school. Turns out it was because all of the local schools’ water pipes were above ground and half of them froze overnight.
As for the bread/milk/eggs stocking up? I’ve never understood it. I’d rather stock up on cookies 🙂
Because it’s the South, of course!
I live at 1600ft in North AL on “The Mountain.” Currently, kids are stuck at the elementary school on “The Moutain” because their parents can’t get to them, it is taking people 2 hours to go 2 miles on the only open road up “The Mountain,” and my husband is planning on ditching his car and hiking up “The Mountain” in order to get home. There’s not even an inch of snow on the ground. It’s crazy, I tell you. Cuhrazy.
Well, I have a theory on this phenom. 1st, it’s not so much the snow as it is the ICE. I moved to Charlotte from San Diego, and we have had snow there (so rarely, that I can only remember 1x in 33 yrs) and we never had this problem there. Here, people are expecting to be ICED in for DAYS with no electricity. If you go to the store, you will also notice the really odd things people have in their carts. In my local Harris Teeter, just today I noticed no ice cream in the freezers(well there were some cartons, but you would think it was July) no milk or TP and not a loaf of bread and no eggs. There was even a lady with a bunch of lobsters in her cart. People seem to want things that they can/will store outside if their electricity goes out. Oh well, I think it is a conspiracy between the TV stations and the grocery stores. All they have to say is *Possibility of Snow* and that is it. Pandamonium!
Haha, well as a Southern Mississippi-er (former Tennessean), I would go to the store so I wouldn’t have to drive with the crazies tomorrow (I live where I work, so no commute).
Seriously, driving here is bad enough without ice/snow…..and its a known fact that people in the south forget how to drive when they a flurry of snow. 😛
We are expecting 1-3″ tonight into Friday so of course it will most slippery during the drive to work tomorrow. I don’t mind the snow but when the ice hits, I stay home under my snuggie.
20% chance of snow would mean that there is no chance of getting snow. We need a 90 or 100% chance in PA
My husband is in Dallas for business today and he can’t believe the number of ice related car accidents & reports of school closings going on now! We live in Erie, PA (in the heart of lake effect snow country) so he was very amused by all the weather hysteria in Dallas. Last year was one of the worst snow falls on record in Erie, yet my daughter didn’t have anything more than a 2-hour school delay. But, the milk/bread/eggs phenom is something I’ve always wondered about too…we’re expecting 6-9+ inches tonight…better check to see how much milk we have left!
Okay, us folks from the South are not morons! We just don’t have the equipment to deal with ice and snow as we rarely get it. I don’t get the rush on the grocery stores myself, but I do know that snow around here (SC) usually means ice and not a great deal of flakes. Plus, we have a lot of rural roads that go untouched by the equipment we do have. I hate comparisons between people from the South and people from the North, but I do recall that a great deal of people in Chicago died several years ago when it was hot. We have the heat and humidity issue down pretty good. In fact I love, love, love the weather when it is close to 100 with 100% humidity. And I have never used the air conditioner in my car!
Because it means there is purpose to their existence at the news channel.
I’m from Alaska, now in Colorado, and I laugh at the school delays and cancellations here. I remember when it first snowed after we moved here I went out to look for snow pants and boots for the kids. They never ONCE used them at school.
I don’t ever remember school being delayed for snow or ice in Alaska, maybe canceled a few times, but that was some B I G snow. I have fond memories of standing at the bus stop in Elementary school with my (wet) hair frozen into icicles and 18″ of snow up my legs. The bus would sometimes be late those days, but we went to school! LOL
Probably the same reason we get “STORM WATCH 2010” in Los Angeles when there is hint of rain on the horizon, ratings!
I don’t want to win.. pretty sure I’m ineligible now anyway. But the locals in the south don’t know how to DRIVE in the snow and back in the ’70’s we wouldn’t just get snow, we would get ICE that would knock down power lines. Now you can’t drive to where you need to be and you’re freezing ass cold too. We don’t have snow tires, we don’t have salt, we don’t have CLOTHES for anything below about 35 degrees, and most of the time we don’t have furnaces that will get hot enough or stay hot long enough for any kind of extended cold. We just don’t get enough of it.
Can’t figure it out. The snow won’t amount to anything and furthermore who can’t do without bread and milk for a couple of hours!!!
Bread and milk hoarding is for milk sandwiches. Obviously! And ditto on what others said, it’s just warm enough so that it’s not nice fluffy snow, it’s ice underneath. With the rarity of these winter weather ‘events’ down here, no one has the equipment for it. People drive like idiots when the weather is *good*, so I’m certainly not driving around them when it’s icy. (That and I have no experience driving on it either. I just about slid through an intersection tonight on my way home here in Atlanta.)
Juli–you hit it. Here in the NW people freak out when snow comes because we aren’t prepared for it. But you will never see the streets flood from rain here like I have seen in the south from a quick flash of rain. And we don’t slide on the road either from the rain like they do down there. But we are prepared. A friend from Iowa griped last December when we had 3 weeks of snow (worst storm since the 60’s) and her town had *only* one snow plow. I said be grateful considering it’s the first time it’s been needed in at least 5 years. lol But it is still fun to joke about it. I laugh at everyone when the snow is predicted. We all freak out and we know it.
Well, thats easy….they don’t shop with coupons…therefore, they don’t have a gianormous stockpile….;)
Mir, if you get snow, be sure you’re careful on the roads, because you are probably the *only* person on the roads you travel who ever learned to drive on snow. Go slowly by all the spin-outs and the accidents, and be sure to smile and wave.
Better yet, stock up on bread and milk so you don’t have to… Oh, nevermind. 😉
Even in CT, where you’d think people would be used to it, there’s a big rush on milk and bread before every snowfall. Sheesh!
Oh how I wanted a snow day today 🙁
There’s still hope for us, we got a surprise warm front overnight that destroyed our changes of snow, so keep your fingers crossed!
I live in upstate New York and we have tons of snow and currently it is only 17 degrees and is supposed to be 9 degrees tonight.
Comfort food ingredients! The southerners will be baking up a storm during the snow storm.
I am from Canada and now live in Virginia and it is hysterical how hysterical people around here get when snow is forecasted. I definetly would not go to a store when snow id predicted it is a zoo.
I have these things in NY called “Dairy Barns” – it’s a drive through convenience store. I drive through and see if the local lot for megamart is jammed and if so we head on over to the guys blasting classic rock and texting furiously at the Dairy Barn. Bread, milk, cookies – all the staples for a snowy day are there.
That is a good question seeing that if the power went out the milk might go bad unless you put it outside. But if you did that, you’d have to open the door and let the cold air in which wouldn’t work because you have no heat! I am from CT and live in Georgia and always get a kick out of going to the store with a slight chance of winter weather!