Life often asks us to choose the high road or the low road. Sometimes, these roads are slick.
Scenes out of Boston look dreadfully familiar: residents unearthing cars encased within igloos, leaning futilely into the wind, gazing haplessly into a sky that literally is falling.
Minnesotans have been there many, many times. Just not this winter. (Although we still could end up there, which must be said to counter any unseemly boastfulness that might be karmically slapped down.)
So we should take the high road and empathize with New Englanders and their wicked bad weather. The 30 days since Jan. 11 officially are the snowiest such period on record in Boston, with 72.6 inches of snow.
Winter Storm Neptune dumped another foot this past weekend and Winter Storm Octavia is waiting in the wings, according to the lamebrained list for blizzard names invented by the Weather Channel.
Ah, welcome to the low road.
Folks, what's going on out there is simply winter. Winter Storm Neptune is what we might call "Tuesday."
This is what chaps our lips: Our blizzards don't lead national newscasts, or prompt pleas for disaster funding, or inspire a new marketing technique of names. (Not that the Weather Channel's strategy has been all that successful: Anyone recall Winter Storms Astro, Bozeman, Cato, Damon, Eris, Frona, Gorgon, Hektor, Iola, Juno, Karl, Linus and Marcus — all of which have swept parts of our great nation since last fall?)
Not that we're courting such a fuss, of course. But we deserved a break after last winter's freeze fest with 50 days with lows below zero.
So from the high road, let us say: We feel your pain. And, sigh, will again. â–¡
