We're expecting another snow and ice storm here in Cville. As someone who grew up near the Canadian border outside of Buffalo, this amuses me. Yes, you have to take the ice seriously and, yes, it's not good to drive in this kind of weather if you don't have the skills to do it. But seriously, folks, is it really necessary to clean the Kroger out of bottled water and toilet paper every time the flakes fly? My husband and son ran a quick errand to Lowes, which is right next door to a Kroger and thought he might pick up some soda while he was in the neighborhood (I'd also asked him to get some Christmas scratch off lottery tickets for stocking stuffers, if he could). Couldn't get near the place - he said it was total panic. Granted, we are south of the Mason-Dixon line but this seems like a little bit of an over-reaction, even for sort-of southerners.


Granted, this is all through the prism of my upbringing. Come mid-October, many Buffalonians outfit their cars with extra blankets, gloves, and hats, along with granola bars, dehydrated fruit or some similar long-keeping snack. After the Blizzard of '77 (immortalized in the book "White Death" by Erno Rossi), killed more than two dozen people - primarily stranded drivers - and caused a week's worth of utter disruption and mayhem, most of the population of Western New York "got religion" and began taking storm prep seriously so there are very seldom panics on the order of what we're seeing here. And, I should point out, that despite Buffalo's very poor reputation weather-wise, there's a reason that these kind of events live on in everyone's memory - they're just not that common. So there.


Here in our house, we're ready to go. We've always got water and canned goods and took a delivery of firewood just last week. There's plenty of animal food and the candles and matches are always at the ready. My big worry at the moment is that my husband and I both have big things we absolutely have to get done tomorrow (me a deadline, him a final exam) and it looks like pre-school will be cancelled. So we're in active negotiation mode to see how we're going to get all our studying and working done, while not shortchanging the boy.


For my part, I'm going to introduce the child to the joys of making a ginger-bread house. I cheated a bit this year and got a pre-fab kit (but one of the nice ones, in a tin with lots of candy). I have a lovely gingerbread house mold but I figured that making one with a three year old required some more immediate gratification. So after breakfast (waffles left over from yesterday spread with some homemade pumpkin butter) we're going to get to work. Watch this space for photos of what I'm sure will be an interesting, if not ready for Martha, result.