Crying Wolf! or Sick! or Snow!

For the last decade, every snow prediction has turned out to be not just wrong, but very, very wrong. If they predict 4-6" of snow, we rarely got even 2". And they embellish the drama of those 2" as if it were a truly life-threatening storm. So we've all gotten used to ignoring our weather hysterics, especially those of us from the north country. "You call this snow?"

Turns out they were just setting us up for a sucker punch. This morning, much to my surprise, I wake up to the Storm of the Century, admittedly a century that is barely 9 years old. Yes, overnight we got more than 9" of snow, for a total of more than 11" on the ground. This city is often crippled by half that snowfall, so the weather hysterics are practically wetting themselves, right there on the air. Almost everything is closed, and almost everyone is staying home. In another couple of hours, I will start calling to see if I even need to find a ride to a doctor's appointment; it's very possible that he and/or his staff have heeded the warnings and stayed home.

The "Crying Wolf" analogy immediately brought to mind the sick days of my childhood. Whenever we said -- or even hinted -- that we were too sick to go to school, The Boy Who Cried Wolf was paraded before us by Mom as a stern warning: one day you will come to me in mid heart-attack, covered with pox and pus, throbbing and bleeding and heaving, and I won't believe you, I will make you go to school, because you Cried Wolf! We sat through the parable, nodding seriously in agreement. Of course, of course, we would never betray your trust. We would never do such a thing. It never worked, not one single time.

I'm sure I'm not the only one, we're not the only family, who had to begin sick days this way. And here's yet another reason for me to doubt the existence, the veracity of Karma: wouldn't every single one of us have cancer, if it was the payback for Crying Wolf? Especially the weather hysterics?

AWESOME HOODIE UPDATE: Ulf and Dan are already shoveling/snowblowing and insist on finishing even though I told them that Chris has called with an offer to drive me to the doc. Help me to remember how my life is still very, very full of incredible friends and awesome blessings.