Some Snow, A Rant & I Repeat Myself

I have a vague recollection of having had a wee rant about a similar event before, not just on the phone to friends or in person, but quite possibly in this space sometime last winter, but it bears repeating.


So we’ve had some snow coming and by the time you read this, it's arrived, made the morning commute a slushy mess and a few hours ago turned into rain. And also by the time you read this, we'll have spent the previous 2-3 days reading about the coming snow, watching the talking heads on CP24 talk to politicians and City staff about snow preparedness, to Canadian Tire employees regarding what you can do to make your car winter ready and extended discussion on what to include in a safety kit in the trunk of your car in case you get stuck in the masses of snow and have to spend several days in your car whilst trying not to gnaw off you arm from the hunger. The Star calls it Snowmageddon, The Weather Network has done regular Storm Watch segments since Monday morning and I started to get a tad worried, taking a look in my fridge and my cupboards and wondering what I need to stock up on to last for the duration. And then, one of aforementioned talking heads mentioned that we're going to have some rain first and then 5-10 cm of snow.


Beg pardon?


5-10? Centimetres? I'll convert for those of you who've yet to see the wisdom of metric: this is about 2-4 inches.


And sure, there was a nor'easter pummeling the Maritimes a few days ago that seemed genuinely worthy of a bit of coverage, but can we get a grip here? This is Canada, 5-10 cm is nothing, certainly not warranting two or three days of advanced Storm Watch! (insert ominous music here). Back in the days when I went to school and work outside my home, 5-10 cm might cause a bit of delay in my WheelTrans pickup, but nobody missed class or work because of it and now? Now people are being asked to stay home unless it's absolutely necessary or they have dialysis by aforementioned WheelTrans (which has apparently developed a distinctly Southern sensibility in the past decade or so) and people who don't use WheelTrans have been hypered into a frenzy of anxiety by 24 hour coverage of the oncoming storm to apparently and all storms.


Before the 24-hour news cycle, they’d have told us to leave earlier and drive safely. Now? You have to shove something into those 24 hours, because there really isn't that much news happening in the world that you can talk about it for 24 hours a day (especially when you as most North American news outlets pay scant attention to anything outside of your own continent) and therefore, what looked to be a bit of snow falling to finally make things look Christmasy, has now become – dum dum DUM! – Snowmaggedon!!! And sure, by yesterday afternoon, they were forecasting up to 15 cm (7 inches), but that still doesn't qualify as Snowmageddon. Snowmageddon is over 30 cm. Several days in a row. And maybe we would all be less anxious and much better off if we heavily medicated the media.


Me? PMS? Why do you ask??



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