The Watcher in the Window– At West End Gallery
I scare myself and I don’t mean lightly
I scare myself it can get frightening
I scare myself to think what I could do
I scare myself it’s some kind of voodoo
—I Scare Myself, Dan Hicks and his Hot Licks (1972)
Icy cold this morning. -1° with a wind chill of somewhere around -14°.
The big news around here is the coming storm with an expected snowfall of 12 to 18 inches. This has people all in a fearful tizzy. The supermarkets were packed yesterday as people rushed to stock up.
There was a sense of dread in the air so thick that created its own storm front. I would like to think I am immune to it, that I will just shrug it off.
Whatcha gonna do? It is winter, after all, and if memory doesn’t fail me, we have had many bigger storms in the past. Seems like in those times I had a much more take-it-as-it-comes attitude. Today I find myself thinking about what needs to be done so that we are prepared and dreading the hours on the tractor it will take to clear our long driveways (a little over 1/4 mile in all) in supercold temps.
Maybe that is simply a product of aging, of knowing that I am dealing with much more limited energy resources at this moment. Definitely much less than twenty or thirty years ago. I feel tired a lot more since I began taking the meds and the cold seems to bite a bit more.
But I still have a bit of that take-it-as-it-comes in me, thank god, and sometimes still find myself laughing at the worries I feel from things like these storms. It’s a pain in the butt and I would obviously rather be doing something else than plowing or shoveling and shivering, but it’s part of the deal. I remind myself this when I find myself fretting over this kind of stuff, that just being able to do the things needed to survive the little perils that pop up in this world is actually a privilege. A pleasure, in fact. Just part of being alive. Much better than the alternative.
It makes me stop scaring myself.
There are much more awful and dangerous things and people out there to fear than a little snow and subzero temperatures.
Now, I just have to convince myself that facing those other things is also a privilege and a pleasure.
Here’s a song, I Scare Myself, from Dan Hicks and his Hot Licks from his album Striking It Rich. I bought this album soon after it came out in 1972 and sometimes even now find myself absent-mindedly singing bits and pieces of the songs from it. This is one that often pops to mind. Maybe it serves as an unconscious reminder to stop scaring myself?
I don’t know. Why doesn’t really matter. I just enjoy revisiting the song.
Redtree Times 
Gary, as strange as it may be, it was exactly the same here on the Texas coast. The grocery store yesterday was crowded, the bottled water was going fast, the milk was long gone, eggs were down to a few dozen dozens. And we wont see temps fall below freezing really until Monday morning. And when the cold really gets here it’ll bottom out in the 20’s most places. And only that for a couple of mornings.
Personally, I’ve quit watching any kind of broadcast weather reports because of the over the top predictions of dome and destruction. I have never been able to figure out what it is about meteorologists and hyping the chance that this storm is going to destroy us all. I would almost think it was a course they take in college. Either that or pessimism is a psychological pre-requisite for the job.
Anyway Gary, stay warm and stay safe…
I feel the same way, Gary. We’ve got to point where everything is described in hyperbolic terms, so much so that we stop listening. As a result, when we are warned of real danger, we no longer pay attention. Sent from my Galaxy
You haven’t seen a fearful tizzy until you’ve been in our stores when ice is predicted. On the other hand, a full week of no power across the state in sub-freezing conditions in 2021 left most people with a reasonable anxiety. It’s not that the conditions are so terrible, it’s that they’re so rare the infrastructure’s not designed to handle them. Example: the highway department’s been de-icing roads and bridges, but inches of rain just washed the salt away. It’s time to stay in, apart from walking the dogs and feeding the birds and critters.
My parents described similar panics before storms when they were living on a sea island outside Charleston. I was in Atlantic City back one January in the 80’s when 6 inches of snow fell. It would have barely raised an eyebrow where I live but it shut the whole town down. We couldn’t check into our hotel and couldn’t get a meal. When I saw them trying to clear the streets with only a backhoe, I knew it was time to leave. as you say, because it was such a rare occurrence they were totally unprepared. Good luck with the storm if it hits your area!
I am worried because ted cruze was seen boarding a plane for Venezuela.
Haven’t Venezuelans suffered enough?
T
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The only word that comes to mind when I think of that guy is ‘Ugh.’ Maybe they will do us a big favor and keep him.
I heard the shopping panic described as “French Toast Syndrome”.In the stores there is no bread eggs or milk.