Storm
The snowpocalypse is coming.
Actually, the word being used - repeatedly - in the newspapers is "snowmageddon." Is it possible that this is the first time anyone has coined that particular word? Because I laugh every time I see it and now that it's out there, everybody is using it.
This particular snowstorm does not otherwise seem to be especially unusual. High winds and 10-15 centimetres' accumulation. Not a great day for tobogganing, necessarily, but not as bad as the 50 cm we saw last month. But last month we didn't have the word "snowmageddon" to throw around, along with its various progeny: "snowlebration," "snowstivities" and "snowpalooza."
"What time are the snowstivities getting started?" one might ask. Or, if you're my mom, you might get confused and ask people if they're ready for "stormageddon."
Canadians love to heap scorn upon the snowdrifts that would keep other, lesser mortals housebound. None of the moms and dads at the kindergarten pick-up yesterday seemed particularly impressed by the weather system heading our way. Of course, it's easy to talk big when you're not actually planning to go anywhere. Personally, I plan to spend the weekend holed up at home, watching the snow pile up around my house and feeling theoretically superior to those who consider a minor little snowfall like this a sign of the end of days.
23 comments:
We're snowed in today. A layer of ice coupled with about 4 in. of snow has our city shut down. :0) We are definitely snowimps.
Look.at.all.the.snow. I haven't seen real live snow in the last two years. I don't particularly miss it. I do miss it a little bit when it is 80 F and sunny on Christmas day. It just feels a little boring. Darn you, Anne of Green gables for images of nasty, drab, ugly, brown Christmases.
You Canadians don't only get the best snow, you also come up with the best words. I have no coopted snowmageddon and will be using it tirelessly all day long. Because we are also enjoying a snowpocalypse. Only here in Chicago, even though people should know better, they completely lose their shit when the flakes start falling.
We must be part of that same storm. We are getting pounded here today too.
Gwen - That's the thing with that word - it's totally contagious and addictive.
Out here, we like to laugh about how certain big cities call in the troops when faced with a snowmageddon, or how certain Western climes panic in the face of flurries. I guess it's a Canadian birthright to be able to lord one's snowperiority over others. It's like finding the biggest snowbank in the school yard and then calling down from on high, "I'm the king of the castle and you're the dirty rascal."
Mad - Snowperiority! I love it.
It is REALLY snowy here, but you folks down south are getting it worse. To which we say "ha!", sympathetically enough.
It's about a trillion below here, though. I'm housebound because I don't want to freeze to death, thank you.
I'm pretty sure snomageddon is mentioned in Revelation, isn't it? ;)
I went out all big boots this morning to take Pumpkinpie to school, dropped her off, and sat in the coffee shop watching the snow get heavier. By the time I finished coffee, I decided not to go to the drugstore after all, just to go home. By the time I got home and it was snowing even more, I wondered how the daycare was going to get all those kids from school to daycare without major whining. The wind has died down now, so it's quite pleasant, just snowy. I've gone out to shovel the walk anothr time, but mostly am staying holed up and catching up on dishes, laundry, and blogging while the wee one takes an epic nap. Woohoo!
The post was hilarious enough, but snowperiority??? Awesoem!
All Canucks join in for a recitation of the Cremation of Sam McGee.
It's going south and east of us this time -- and, yeah, if it weren't for my daughter coming home via Pearson, I would be snowbish about Canadian snowperiority too.
Memo to self; retrieve snowshoes that the neigbours borrowed.
Bea - I love it, funny lady.
Now THAT is weather the TV people could get excited about here in Southern California.
Happy Holidays!
I like nothing better than to be snowbound in a warm cozy home, shooing kids outside when they get too much on my nerves. Of course, I drive 4 hours to Tahoe to experience it, so maybe that's part of it.
We here in Minnesota are getting our 5th storm in like 7 days - at this point the new storm expected tomorrow will be snowperfluous.......the opposite of snowperb....a real snowlamity!!
we're still waiting for the storm to come east...i'm just hoping you we get to our friends' Christmas Open House this afternoon first, as i think my children need to get out of my house and destroy someone else's for awhile.
i actually like "stormageddon." tell your mom.
Ha ha ha! My mom gets confused like that, too. She calls the Dirt Devil vacuum a "Devil Dog," for example.
It's hysterical. I grew up in upstate NY. A typical snow storm would mean two feet of snow. Here in Philadelphia, people get all crazy when when get a dusting. Hours of news are devoted to the 'storm.'
10-15 centimetres? Really? I was just on the phone with my mom saying "No, no snowmageddon here. Southern Ontario's getting the real storm. We're only getting 15-20 centimetres." Tee hee. My husband thinks it's the economy, that people are revelling in the doomsday vibe, which is what I think you were hinting at at the end of your post.
I suppose the rest of Canada views southern Ontario with the same smug sense of snow-toughness that southern Ontarians save for Americans. When I was in your neck of the woods, I clung to my roots by walking 40 minutes to school all winter long, half enjoying my classmates' horrified reactions.
But now? In my not such a big deal Quebec snowstorm? I'm staying in, thank you very much.
Hey, I'm in my house feeling superior to everyone, too! (Though it IS a lot of snow out there. For here, anyway.)
It is funny that no one has even thought top coin these before. I bet that guy feels pretty awesome right now.
It's just wrong that we were hit hard by snow last year, and yet, this year, we STILL don't have the resources to handle the snow.
I am starting to feel closed in by the mountains of snow - I have Snowstrophobia
those are great words. in New Orleans, with the 3-4 inches we got 2 weeks ago, it was definitely a snowpalooza and the snowtivites were great (of course, on Xmas it was 75 degrees F)
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