Erieversible

Okay, so we knew moving to Erie would mean snowy winters.  And *some* of us were actually quite excited by the prospect.  (The family members aged ten and under, at least.)  But the snowy slushy stuff yesterday still came as something of a surprise.  (The little one was disappointed that there wasn’t enough to play in as well!)

Theoretically, I’m pretty much prepared for snow…in practice…well…maybe not so much.  We have bought snow brushes for the cars and a snow shovel for the drive.  (Which is looking longer every time I look at it.)  And winter coats, hats, and gloves/mittens for everyone as all our winter wear is still in storage somewhere waiting for the house purchase.  We still need boots, though…for everyone..maybe after we get those I’ll feel ready.

I doubt it though.  After eleven years of “moderate” weather, the thought of snow is a bit…overwhelming…exciting, but overwhelming.  I know…a few weeks time and I’ll be used to it again.  At least I hope so.  But for everyone else in the family, it will be a great learning curve.  Hopefully not too steep (deep?) of one for a while.

A steep learning curve?  Why, I can remember back in my youth when the UK had lots of snow, and I managed okay.  Sure, my toboggan had some problems with the right hand runner, but a bit of lard on it soon sorted that.  How much more difficult can it be to drive a car in snow than it was to hurtle down hillsides on a pimped-up plank of wood?  

First of all it was a possible job opportunity in Cleveland that disappeared when the company implemented a freeze on hiring new employees.  Now the rumour is that at least one major local employer has implemented a similar freeze.  Not just slow-downs, but freezes.

When we moved to Erie I knew in advance that there were 4 full seasons, that Autumn would be cold and Winter even more so.  I was looking forward to a proper variety of weather, and had no worries about the low Winter temperatures.  I hadn’t reckoned on the economic climate getting so bad.

We’re lucky.  We are able to look for work elsewhere, or to hang on in Erie for a while.  Others are not going to be so lucky.  Looking at the size of the UK Government’s banking bailout package, and comparing it to the size of the US bailout package, I have to wonder…..is $700 billion anywhere near enough?

I fear not.  I also think this will be a very cold Winter indeed for Erie.