It’s Going to Be Cold

So they say. I live south of the snow line for this latest storm – “Harper”. As is so often the case, people over-react to the forecast. I may be overly cautious as well, but at least my decisions impact only me. Way back in November 2018 we had a snow storm – quite a mess on the roads. Our governor did NOT declare a state of emergency and people went crazy in response. “How DARE he not declare a state of emergency??? We spent HOURS on the roads, which weren’t plowed, weren’t salted, blah blah blah.” Sigh. I know – that was heartless and condescending on my part. I’m not sure why people feel they have to wait for the governor to tell them to leave work early when it’s snowing and the forecast says more is coming. Seriously – many of us do work in jobs where we can just say “I’m leaving now” and leave. Percentage wise, fewer of us are emergency personnel than are NOT needed in a snowstorm. And if all of us who COULD leave early DID leave early – there wouldn’t have been such a problem. (Hey, don’t blame me – I worked from home that day.) Anyway, that was the governor’s first storm and the overwhelming verdict was that he blew it.

Now we have/had Harper. The vast majority of NJ (if not all of it by Saturday night) was below the snow line. The forecasts started showing that on Thursday, more so on Friday, and certainly by Saturday morning it was fairly certain that most of the state would get rain, not snow. We do NOT declare states of emergency for rain unless we are talking storms with high winds. We weren’t getting that forecast. But, the governor is a politician. If he was criticized for not declaring a state of emergency well by golly, THIS time he’ll get it right. He declared a state of emergency beginning at noon on Saturday, which meant all sorts of roads were off limits to various vehicles and certain businesses could shut down early in glee. I know this because I wanted to go to the library yesterday. I checked the hours to make sure it was open or that I could go after my grocery shopping, and saw a big alert that the library would be closing at noon due to the state of emergency and would not reopen until Tuesday. Sigh. The good news for me is that it was only 10:15 am so I had plenty of time but how foolish. At noon it was 43 degrees and sunny (I was out running errands). At 6pm it was STILL in the 40s. The rain didn’t start in our area until 9pm or so. Rain, not snow. Anyway, here we are in, I believe, a state of emergency. *rolling eyes more*

The forecast IS calling for dropping temperatures, for below-zero temps overnight and in the single digits most of tomorrow, with windchill “real feels” of below zero. My daddy brought me up right. I made sure the outdoor spigots were off, drained, and left open to drip. I double-tarped the hot tub. It does have an insulated lid but when it gets this cold, I look at the tub and see hot air escaping and it looks like little dollar bills flying up into the sky. So even though I can’t take a dip tonight now, at least I am giving the hot tub thermostat some assistance. My car is tucked inside the garage (I’m such a princess) and I put my husband’s car in the driveway. The big warning for tomorrow will be ice. If there is any water left on the roads tonight from the 12 hours of rain, the road might be quite tricky tomorrow.

We plan on staying warm, cooking a yummy filling dinner, and not going outside!