Sunday, October 31, 2004

Unhappy Halloween

I can now report that the people of Buffalo are a bunch of dirty liars.

I have had to consistently lower my expectations here, and I tell you, I’m utterly fed up.

Besides the obvious problems of having no Cheerwine or Barbeque, the “White Halloween” I’d been promised has been postponed—indefinitely.

This move up North was all about the weather (and somewhat for family…). I fully expected it to snow at the end of August. Everything seems to be getting pushed back further into the season, and the talk around here is about an extended Indian Summer.

Oh, everyone here is absolutely thrilled, but I am miserable. Gloom, despair, agony, depression—where is my snow? There was a teaser a couple of weeks ago, when we had sleet mixed with the rain and my hourly check-ups with the Weather Channel progressed to every other minute. I was waiting for headlines such as: “Early Blizzard Cripples Buffalo,” or “Schools Out Already for Biggest Snowstorm in Decades.”

Instead, I sit here wondering how, at this latitude, can Halloween possibly be a 65-degree nightmare of a day? We even had to run the air conditioning last night to cool things off!

I’m guessing that this means no “White Thanksgiving,” “White Christmas,” or “White Valentine’s Day.” I’m setting my new sights on St. Patrick’s Day, and crossing my fingers and my toes.

Of course, everyone here thinks I’m nuts. “Enjoy the warm weather,” they say, “Winter here lasts six to eight months.” Well, that’s just fine with me. I’ve never been much for the heat and now that I live closer to the Arctic Circle, “warm” and “hot” are two words I could care less about.

Happy Halloween, indeed.

1 comment:

FarmerW said...

A couple off hand comments: First, in a year or two you will be thrilled with an extended Indian summer as well. Remember the words you typed here after you get done cursing at and swearing to kill the bleeping snowplow driver after he has filled in your freshly shoveled driveway for the fortieth time that day. Secindly, I am not sure why you still hold on to any expectations of Buffalonians after everything I told you about them. Thirdly, if you want real winter, you need to head up to my Mom and Dad's. Buffalo doesn't even know what real winterr is, they are just a bunch of whiners and pansies ( as witnessed by their football team). Lastly, the old saying goes that if there is a green Thanksgiving, then there will be a white Christmas, and the opposite. However, I distinctly remember that being disproven several times when both proved to be glaringly white. PS, I called Dad today and it was snowing up there.