Off the Cuff / My Other Journal

Northeast, Cold Weather, Snow and All That

Truth is we ran away to Florida in 1992 because we did not want to shovel snow on a 300 feet driveway in winter, and also, did not want to rake leaves in a very large yard with 200+ oak trees in fall. Still the memory of it all haunts me as if it was the greatest thing we ever did.

Not only the memory of where I lived but the memory of where I visited in the northeast comes back with every news story. When I heard of the ten to twelve feet snow in upstate NY, I remembered Saratoga Springs. Someone called that city the spa of the Northeast, I don't know why. Is it because of the horses? Horses in a spa? Doesn't make sense. Still, I wonder now, how the town looks under all that snow.

I remember people hosing the mud-caked horses in front of the clubhouse after a race. I am not a horse person, so I don't know what they do with horses in the cold, since the stables look quite drafty. Someone told me they put heaters here and there and blanket the horses. But what if all that snow got into the stables?

Then, I wonder if the kids still put up lemonade stands on the sidewalks; although, this has nothing to do with the snow. We went there in summer and also in fall when the lemonade stands and restaurant-waiters who claimed their apple pies were the best in town were a reality. I bet the apple-pie thing is still on, but do the kids nowadays put up lemonade stands and become paper carriers? So many things in our culture change over the years...

But all snow? Unbelievable!

Another thing that shocks is how cold it got where I live. South Florida, this time of the year, is warm. The temperature is usually in the eighties.

For the last two or three days, however, we are freezing. Right now in the morning, it is 37 degrees and sunny; the weatherman says we'll see 65 in the afternoon. When we say frigid sixties here, everyone laughs, but the houses must be built differently in FL; they are difficult to heat. Our cooling system is working non-stop now as the heating system, which doesn't do much for allergy sufferers, because the system heats up the pollen accumulated on the same wires used for air-conditioning.

Still, shoveling the snow scares me more. Then, imagine 10 feet!