We’re All In This Together
The news and Facebook are blowing up with everyone making preparations for this major noreaster that is blowing in today and tomorrow. Reports are that Boston could get up to 30 inches of snow. That’s a lot of snow, no matter how prepared a place is. I just spoke to a business contact in Hartford, CT who is out getting stocked up on supplies for a few days.
I’ve never been in a noreaster. I’ve never lived long term in an area where the weather was so bad that one could end up homebound for more than about 72 hours max. Even in the six years I’ve lived in Florida, we’ve not experienced a hurricaine that kept us home for more than about two days. I don’t relish the idea of being “trapped” anywhere due to weather, but sooner or later, it’s going to happen. It’s just inevitable.
A few years ago, I was set to speak at Illinois State University in Normal. The weather reports for what was coming across the mid-west just kept getting worse and worse. The morning of my speech, my client called at 5 a.m. saying school was cancelled and we’d have to re-schedule my lecture. No problem. After all, this was the storm that meteorologists and Midwesterners still call, “snowpocalypse.” We hurried out of the hotel, caught the first train to St. Louis and changed our flight since everything had been cancelled. We knew we’d be holed up in a hotel for at least 48 hours, but with reports coming across the wire, it could have been more like four or five days.
There’s an acceptance that comes along with not being able to do, well, anything…for a short time. Marvelyne and I went to the restaurant in the hotel, feeling lucky we were safe, warm and basically hotel bound for the next few days. We had a leisurely dinner, learned that the hotel manager was making vacant rooms available to all hotel staff who couldn’t get to/from work, we ordered an extra drink, had coffee and dessert, just enjoying our time together since, well, there was nothing else we could do. and Again, there’s this acceptance that seemed to settle over everyone, guests and hotel staff alike. We all knew we’d be trapped together, so we might as well make the best of it.
No one likes being stuck, but I feel like there’s a little comfort that comes with knowing you’re safe and the world has basically come to a temporary standstill. For my friends in the northeast, I hope this feeling of peace and acceptance will be with you through this major storm, too.
