Snow, 2021 Version

This is snow. This is Northeastern PA snow, ugly and piled up in the mall parking lot. It is mid-February and most of us have had enough. By my unofficial calculations we have had about the average amount of snow this winter, but so much is not "average" about this year.

Since I am retired snow does not rattle me the way that it used to. In my working career, I traveled five northeastern states by car, and the weather had a huge impact on my travels. I am so grateful that I don't have to do those "white knuckle" trips any longer. My wife and I have also downsized recently, moving from a huge home with a 500' long driveway that we cleared, to a townhome where someone comes to clear our driveway and sidewalk. The first time that it snowed this year I asked my wife for 10 bucks to tip the guy that was shoveling my driveway. She said no, reminding me that we pay a monthly HOA fee that covers the snow removal. We discussed further and I gave the guy $10. It was the best $10 that I have tipped anyone in recent memory. I cannot explain the feeling of sitting inside and hearing someone else's shovel scraping my sidewalk outside.

School closings have changed for my grandkids. Now that they have a "virtual" option, snow days appear to be a thing of the past. While I am happy about my sidewalk, I am sad for my grandkids.

Business closings seem to have changed. I know I am old, but it seems to me that certain businesses did not close for snow storms. The Postal Service, the supermarkets, and the newspaper delivery historically did not close because of snow. Not now, not in 2021. Our mail does not get delivered if it snows. I am not talking about a 20+" dumping that we get from time to time. I am talking any measurable snow and we do not get our mail. I was in the supermarket one day recently at around 4:30 PM when flurries had just started to fall. The store manager announced that they would be closing at 5 PM due to the "impending storm". The kid slicing my lunch meat was so happy that he almost jumped out of his white deli apron. I was stunned, I thought that the supermarket was the place where everyone went because of the impending storm! And lastly the newspaper. I am fully aware that I am one of the few people in America that still has a newspaper delivered to my home, but old habits are hard to break. Before a recent storm the Wall Street Journal emailed us and said that they would make every effort to deliver our paper, but if they could not deliver, they suggested that we read their online edition. I don't want to read their online edition, I want to hold the paper in my hands, I want to smell the paper! I want to experience "reading the paper", not pointing and clicking. We didn't get a paper for three days.

Sorry for the rant, but thanks for letting me vent. Here is my real question: Are we getting soft? What would our parents and their parents think of the supermarket closing due to the "impending storm"? This is a family blog, so I probably cannot print what some of them would say.