Fine White Powder...and Snow

Snow is falling steadily outside of The Common Man's window, silently dropping to the frozen ground. Everywhere he looks is covered with a thin layerof fine white powder. This pleases The Common Man.

The Common Man believes, you see, that weather should constantly be at its most logical extremes. Summer days should be warm and clear. If a day is not warm and clear, The Common Man should get to enjoy at least one thunderstorm for his trouble. For thunder does calm The Common Man, sometimes putting him to sleep, and always makes Ralph the Evil Dog cower in a way that is amusing. Likewise, in the winter, The Common Man demands that every day be either a) unusually warm, b) cold and crisp (with requisite blue sky), or snowing. Weather must make up its damn mind about what it is going to do so that The Common Man can plan out his day accordingly. This winter has been ideal for The Common Man, as it has either been unseasonably warm (until January) or snowing heavily (practically every day since). (Of course, as our globe warms, The Common Man can enjoy many unseasonably warm days as he swims to Colorado.)

Today also pleases The Common Man because his meetings at the local high school have been cancelled (as, apparently, has school). While The Common Man has no real desire to look a gift 5 extra hours in the mouth, he does feel the need to point out that the powers that be in Maine and Minnesota (where he lived prior to settling in Bellefonte, PA) would never allow 1-3 inches of snow to shut them down. The plows would be out working overtime, getting boys and girls to school and men and women to work. Time, after all, is money. Perhaps Minnesotans and Mainiacs are simply heartier than Pennsylvanians. Perhaps they are better and more careful drivers in the snow. Or maybe Centre County needs to buy some more snow plows and develop a better plan for using them. But The Common Man doesn't think there's a valid excuse for letting 1-3 inches of snow keep you away from school or work (unless a) you slide off the road and are upside-down in a ditch somewhere or b) you are using the snow as an excuse to skip a class that you really wanted to skip anyway). Cowboy up, Pennsylvania!