Let it snow!

Only in Iowa...

I noticed this yesterday when I was walking around outside. Now, it was very rainy and very cold yesterday, maybe a few degrees up from freezing. I was surprised when I woke up this morning and found that it hadn't frozen over.

But anyway, it was cold yesterday. I am a rare species of female, because I do not get cold easily, but I was chilled. The rain didn't help, and it is getting closer to winter. But moving on, I noticed something very odd as I was outside.

Everyone was walking around in typical clothing for this time of year. There were some people wearing winter jackets or heavier coats. But most people were in jeans, sweatshirts and...

Flip-flops.

Yes, flip-flops. Sandals. In weather that's barely above freezing. Was I among these numbers? You bet your ass I was! Truthfully, I don't like wearing shoes a lot of time. I prefer to go barefoot. More comfy.

See, we in the Midwest are quite used to our bad winters. Last winter was one step up and a hundred or so degrees down from HELL! Everytime we turned around, there was more snow. It sucked on multiple levels. And yet everywhere you look, there was at least one or two people wearing sandals or flip-flops of some kind. I've done it--it's not fun if you get stuck in a snowdrift unexpectedly.

When I went to San Diego with the marching band during my sophomore year, we were all in shorts, T-shirts, and other assorted summerwear. People there thought we were nuts because it tended to get chilly at night, around forty degrees or so. Forty degrees? Hell, that's almost beach weather where we're from! At Sea World, I got soaked, and one couple asked me if I was cold. I responded, "Naw, we're from Iowa. This is nothing. Back home, they're in the middle of a thirty-below blizzard." That was, indeed, the truth.

But the point is that we Midwesterners have a different way of looking at the cold. We see it as just another time of year, albeit a slightly more annoying one. Snow can be pretty, unless it's blowing against your car at forty miles an hour in the middle of the night. Cold is tolerable. Ice...well, whoever invented ice sucks, especially when they put it on inclined roads.

Which reminds me--I can honestly tell my kids I walked to school uphill both ways. When I was in high school, I walked to school sometimes. I had to go up a hill to the corner, turn the corner, then walk down another hill, and then turn another corner and walk up another incline to get to the school itself. Then I would reverse that to go home. So yes, indeedy, I walked to school uphill both ways--sometimes even in the snow.

The point of this entry? There really is no point. I just felt like talking about flip-flops in winter, I guess. It's almost here--we'll be getting mounds and mounds of the white stuff any day now, I bet. And I say--let it snow. We're Iowans, Midwesterners, we can take it.

Bring it on.

Let it snow!

Only in Iowa...

I noticed this yesterday when I was walking around outside. Now, it was very rainy and very cold yesterday, maybe a few degrees up from freezing. I was surprised when I woke up this morning and found that it hadn't frozen over.

But anyway, it was cold yesterday. I am a rare species of female, because I do not get cold easily, but I was chilled. The rain didn't help, and it is getting closer to winter. But moving on, I noticed something very odd as I was outside.

Everyone was walking around in typical clothing for this time of year. There were some people wearing winter jackets or heavier coats. But most people were in jeans, sweatshirts and...

Flip-flops.

Yes, flip-flops. Sandals. In weather that's barely above freezing. Was I among these numbers? You bet your ass I was! Truthfully, I don't like wearing shoes a lot of time. I prefer to go barefoot. More comfy.

See, we in the Midwest are quite used to our bad winters. Last winter was one step up and a hundred or so degrees down from HELL! Everytime we turned around, there was more snow. It sucked on multiple levels. And yet everywhere you look, there was at least one or two people wearing sandals or flip-flops of some kind. I've done it--it's not fun if you get stuck in a snowdrift unexpectedly.

When I went to San Diego with the marching band during my sophomore year, we were all in shorts, T-shirts, and other assorted summerwear. People there thought we were nuts because it tended to get chilly at night, around forty degrees or so. Forty degrees? Hell, that's almost beach weather where we're from! At Sea World, I got soaked, and one couple asked me if I was cold. I responded, "Naw, we're from Iowa. This is nothing. Back home, they're in the middle of a thirty-below blizzard." That was, indeed, the truth.

But the point is that we Midwesterners have a different way of looking at the cold. We see it as just another time of year, albeit a slightly more annoying one. Snow can be pretty, unless it's blowing against your car at forty miles an hour in the middle of the night. Cold is tolerable. Ice...well, whoever invented ice sucks, especially when they put it on inclined roads.

Which reminds me--I can honestly tell my kids I walked to school uphill both ways. When I was in high school, I walked to school sometimes. I had to go up a hill to the corner, turn the corner, then walk down another hill, and then turn another corner and walk up another incline to get to the school itself. Then I would reverse that to go home. So yes, indeedy, I walked to school uphill both ways--sometimes even in the snow.

The point of this entry? There really is no point. I just felt like talking about flip-flops in winter, I guess. It's almost here--we'll be getting mounds and mounds of the white stuff any day now, I bet. And I say--let it snow. We're Iowans, Midwesterners, we can take it.

Bring it on.