Waiting for Harper

"Do we have enough food? Maybe we should go to the grocery store one more time."

"We're fine," I tell Mr. Ginley.

I run through the checklist of foodstuffs that stand between us and starvation, all of them stocked in our pantry or refrigerator.

"But what about chips and pop? Do we have snacks?"

I reassure him that we have something from each of the basic junk food groups, as well as fresh fruit and ingredients for several meals.

Also, I remind him that Dunkin' Donuts is right down the street. And that the advantage of living in the city is that a drug store and several restaurants are within walking distance.

"We'll be fine," I reassure him.

"This snowfall is of epic proportions," he asserts. "You know they always plow our street last, we could be snowed in for days."

"We'll be fine," I say.

"We're all going to die," he says, defeated.

And so it goes.

This is the problem with the age of technology. As I recall, we had little warning of the Armageddon that was the blizzard of 1977-78. That was the worst snowfall in my memory. It took three hours for us to drive home from work, Judy at the wheel. Cars were abandoned along I-77, so we slalomed our way home, getting stuck and unstuck all the way. I kissed the ground when I arrived home. The next morning, Judy said she was going to work, but I deferred. Even though she was going anyhow, and we lived across the street from one another, I did not want to sit in the car, white knuckled, for hours on end. And really, it's not like we had jobs that were critical to the survival of mankind.

These days, we have storm trackers. Early in the week, there were dire predictions of huge snowfall amounts, arctic temperatures and a "polar vortex." Thus, the most talked about-topic at the water fountain has been the weather. How much, how long, how cold.

And the news media and weather service, who have taken forecasting to the next level, have decided to name our snow events. This one is called "Harper." Such a benign sounding name for something that's predicted to wreak havoc. "Beelzebub" would be a much better moniker. That might get folks to stay home and off the roads.

As for me, I have books, jigsaw puzzles and some binge-watching lined up for this weekend. I'm looking forward to hunkering down and taking advantage of the better-off-at-home nature of this storm.

Here's wishing all of you a safe, peaceful, uneventful weekend.

And, if you must journey out, safe travels.