It would seem Mother Nature is determined to give us more than enough rain and snow this year, and sitting here taking a break from packing in preparation to move everything into storage, I’ve been thinking about weather-related memories I have. As you read today’s post, instead of complaining when the weather isn’t just what you’d hoped for, think back to the times when maybe you jumped in mud puddles, built a crooked snowman, or told ghost stories during a thunderstorm when the power was out.
Weather has been a part of my life since the day I was born. My parents tell me they were worried they wouldn’t make it to the hospital in time before I was born because a snowstorm slowed them down. Indeed, I have always loved snow. Although, I think living in North Carolina for 10 years softened that love just a bit.
I was born in Reno, Nevada January 10, 1979. According to Billboard, “Too Much Heaven” by the Bee Gees was the #1 song that week. The highest grossing movie at the box office that month was “The Deer Hunter” at $50 million with Robert De Niro and Meryl Streep. During the 10 years we lived in Nevada, I experienced a little bit of everything. Snow, crazy thunderstorms, flooding, brush fires, drought and plenty of sunshine. The mountains surrounding the two homes we lived in in Sparks were full of metal, attracting a lot of lightening each time we had a storm. When I was younger, I didn’t like really loud noises including thunder and fireworks. So each time we had a thunderstorm, I got reeeeaaallly scared. My poor parents probably got woken up by me more often than the thunder itself. To this day, I’m still not a fan of thunderstorms, and always wish I had someone to snuggle up with during one. On the up side, though, my dad and I often went into the garage and watched storms from inside. On one of these occasions, I remember eating an apple, and at about the same time I took a bite, a crack of thunder boomed, and a loose tooth popped out. What kid doesn’t love losing a loose tooth?
Because we lived in the desert, any time we got a substantial amount of rain at once, flooding usually followed. One year in February, we missed 2 weeks of school because the basement of our school flooded. I can also remember the year, in 4th grade I think it was, my mom had to wade out into almost knee-deep water flooding our neighborhood to fetch me from the bus stop after school. We sat upstairs on the second floor, watching the water rise about halfway up our sloped driveway. I can remember worrying about my dad getting home safely and wondering why anyone didn’t get the sagebrush tumbleweeds out of the drains so our neighborhood wouldn’t flood.
I’m also not a big fan of high winds. Most of the roofs in Nevada had wood shingles on them, and I always worried ours would catch on fire. One year, before my brother was born, so I was younger than 8, a fire broke out on the far edge of our neighborhood. Because of the high fire risk in our area, fire lanes went in between almost every row of houses, but fires were known to jump them, and we, along with the rest of the neighborhood, anxiously watched as the fire moved closer and closer. I saw people spraying water on their roofs, and thought if not for the fire, we could have had a block party with all the people outside. Wind took on a new dimension when we moved to North Carolina when I was 10. That first fall, October 1989, Hurricane Hugo hit the Carolinas. Thankfully, where we lived, the storm lost most of its strength by the time it got to us. But I do remember looking out our apartment window, worried about the small tree in the front yard falling down. I’d never been in a hurricane or tornado before. I got plenty more chances while in NC. Like the year I was in college at UNCG, working in the music library, which was thankfully in the basement of the music building. Suddenly, everyone started flocking to our little library, as a tornado had been spotted down the road! All of us tried to get under the few desks in the room, away from the stacks of music scores. One of the girls I worked with had up a radar screen on a computer from the National Weather Service, trying to track the storm. Yeah, I was a bit scared, but at the same time, it was so exciting and fun to have everyone huddled and scared. While many of us were wishing we were with family, we all became each other’s family.
We had quite a few snow storms in NV, so when we moved to NC, I really missed the snow. I was in 5th grade our first year there, and one day, we got sent home early from school because it was supposed to snow… but it never did. When I was 17, we were out of school almost 2 weeks because of snow and ice. We were without power for about two days, and we were the lucky ones. But, trying to make the best of it, we enjoyed candle light dinners, snuggled under all the blankets we could find, and enjoyed no homework, although we were supposed to be studying for finals. You’d think with all the times we got out of school for these storms, the school districts would go ahead and invest in bus chains. Those ice storms could be brutal though. I had to go to work once during an ice storm, and the 30 minute drive took me about 2 ½ hours. I got so frazzled, I started crying and lost a contact lens. This was during the days before cell phones, so my work and my parents were worried since I was always dependable. Then there was the time I slid off the road coming home from work in an ice storm, but luckily it happened in my neighborhood. My mom came and rescued me and from then on, I had to keep kitty litter in my trunk for just such an emergency. The best ice storm, though, was the night I had gotten married. My then husband, being from Utah and used to bad weather, and I decided to go see a movie, which amazingly was still open, and we had the entire theater to ourselves. No, we didn’t do a lot of hanky panky… it was “Star Trek Insurrection”, after all.
Back in Utah, I’ve enjoyed all the snow… in its season! The first February I was here, it snowed once a week all month and I was in heaven! But, a few years ago, while going to Weber State University for my Bachelor’s, it snowed once and it took about 2 hours to get my car out of the snow, and out of the parking lot. A big ‘ole SUV, a bunch of big strong guys, and I all tried digging out my car, and hauling it out the rest of the way. Ironically, Don Queco and I figured out that he was probably helping dig people out on the other side of campus from where I was… this about a year or two before we met. My little brother was super stoked when he and my parents came out for college graduation. It was the beginning of May, and it snowed. We once even got snow in June. There was also that time I had to work Christmas night, when I was working overnights at the CBS Station in Salt Lake. I was the 6am producer, and since it was Christmas night, there was no one to fill in. The 20-30 minute drive took me two hours. Since it was Christmas night, the snow plows weren’t really out, and there was at least 4-5 inches of snow on the freeway. It was a lot of fun for the few of us out though… we were slipping and sliding all over the place like an ice rink, and making our very own tracks in the snow. I’ve also had tons of fun making snowmen and snow angels and having snow ball fights with my kids. That’s one of those reason why I love being a mom… it gives you an excuse to act like a kid.
So that just leaves earthquakes and volcanoes. I’ve been in a few minor earthquakes, both in North Carolina and Utah, but they were never strong enough for me to really notice. I gave a speech in an undergrad class about the threat of an earthquake here in Utah, and learned it’s not a matter of if, but when. And the damage is likely to be significant because of a lack of earthquake fit buildings and the location of many houses, either on the mountain side, or too close to the lake where they could become victim to liquefaction. However, I’m not really scared of earthquakes. If you were to ask me what kind of natural disaster I’m most scared of, I’d say volcanoes. Remember the movie “Dante’s Peak”? The movie scared the bejeezes out of me. Just the idea of raging hot, acidic lava bearing down on me, burning me slowly to death, just doesn’t sit well with me. I think I’d rather be swallowed up in a crack in the earth from an earthquake or knocked over the head by something in a tornado.
So when people ask me whether I like living in the west or east better, I have to say I like both. I miss the warm summer rains when I’d go outside with an umbrella, trying to not step on all the worms in North Carolina. I love how gorgeous the Blue Ridge Parkway is in the Autumn, with plenty of warm fall and spring days. But I’d also miss the snow and mountains in Utah and the lack of constant humidity. It’s also nice not worrying about tornadoes here. Well, except for the time a big tornado hit downtown Salt Lake City in the summer of ’99. I thought I was back in NC! So although I was almost literally born in the snow, I love all the seasons for different reasons. I love when the weather finally warms up in the spring so we can go outside and feel the sunshine on our skin. I love the heat in summer that makes falling off the wake skate and into the cold lake water feel heavenly. And I love the slight chill in the air, football games, back-to-school, and the promise of the holidays approaching that fall brings. And I can’t wait to hear about all the good memories my future knight has to tell related to crazy weather adventures!
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