Snowstorm

snowstorm

"Well I listen to the weather
And he's changed his tone of voice
Says he can see it in the radar
only seven hours away
well there's gonna be a snowstorm
and the t;v;'s going wild
and they've got nothing else to think of
so they're letting me go home..."

It's been almost ten years since we last got blanketed in snow. This one came close. We were probably only a few inches away from the mammoth total of 1996.

It was wonderful.

Leaving work last night, trudging, leaping through snow drifts, walking ten blocks before realizing it would be easier just to walk down the middle of the street before finally getting to a bar and rushing inside for a glass of whiskey...

Today, walking to work, I was surrounded by people stomping through the streets, anxiously looking for a bar to hide in and drink the day away. I was so jealous.

Every time a car tried to drive through the street, everyone yelled at them to get out of the road.

On the news, all you hear about is airport closings, train stoppages, road closings, store closings. Every inconvenience you can think of.

They make it sound like an awful thing.

The last blizzard, in 1996, I watched people skiing down Broad Street. I spent the whole day shoveling the entire street with my neighbor, and when I went inside, my girlfriend at the time had hot cocoa waiting for me.

Leaving work, walking through the streets that are supposedly shut down, all I saw were kids playing with their parents, all knowing that there would be no school, no work, nothing to drag them out of bed in the morning.

This is when you have snow football games in Rittenhouse Square. When you fall down in the snow and don't try too hard to get up. When you go to the bar at three in the afternoon and stay until close. When you can throw snowballs at complete strangers and get away with it. When you finally get home with a loved one and curl up close, meaning it. When you drink whiskey and yell and flop around in the middle of the street with no fear. When you have to leap out your front door because you can't see your steps. When you sit on the corner and watch the snow fall and almost hope it won't ever end.

There's a beauty to be found in the inability to function as we normally do. There's a wonderful freedom in chaos. The city may shut down, but the people in it keep living with an abandon seldom seen. Nobody is too old to play in the snow.

"Well I'm looking at the snowflakes
and they all look the same"

I, unfortunately, had to work through this whole blizzard. I got stuck dealing with people who couldn't enjoy any of it, couldn't see the beauty in the storm. They only saw inconvenience and frustration. They wouldn't play in the snow. Or, if they did, they would never admit to it. All they wanted was for the streets to reopen, for the planes to fly, and for the trains to run.

It sucked.

Even tonight, walking home, the streets were pretty much clean, and I constantly had to get out of the way of oncoming vehicles. The fun was taken away again. The city was given back to the professionals.

I realized that tomorrow afternoon, the bars will be quiet again. Business will be pretty much back to normal. Everyone will be out of excuses. And there will be no more walking down the middle of the street.

But then I turned the corner onto my little side street, and I trudged and fell and clamored over the snow to get to my door, and it took me three tries to get up my invisible steps and open the door of my house, and I giggled. Loudly. Relentlessly. Like a childish little girl.

Why not? I like it when the streets are closed. And I'll never be too old to play in the snow.