I have jokingly stated that Blairsville, GA is technically the northern most town in Florida, only Georgia thinks it belongs to them. Occasionally, I meet a 'local'; someone who was born and raised here. More often than not, when the conversation gets going, even someone who is from "Minnesota" will interject "when we lived in Florida" into the conversation. Once in a while I will discover that someone I considered a 'local' actually came from somewhere else, most often Florida. So, while I live in Georgia, sometimes it just doesn't seem that way.
I love this town. It is nestled in a beautiful part of the Appalachian Mountains. Summers get warm, but not as hot as Atlanta. Fall and Spring are lovely. We have four seasons. Snow makes an appearance, but it's not too serious. By that I simply mean we get inches, not feet. However, because we live in the south, a few inches can shut down this town as easily as 10 feet shuts down Buffalo. Maybe not. I'm not sure if anything shuts down Buffalo.
Truth be told, around here if there is snow in the mountains the people living there are stuck until it melts off. Sometimes that's in a few hours. When the weather is cold it can be several days. The 3 trucks with a plow are too busy keeping the main roads in town open to worry about anything more than a mile out of town. Salt? What is that? I'm pretty sure, Pittsburgh has cornered the market on salt. When we lived there I routinely found a bucket load of salt at every intersection. Here, we use gravel, (mixed with salt they say...).
The weather this week has separated us from Florida. The high one day was 29 degrees and that was at midnight. At 3:00 that afternoon we were sitting at 24 degrees. Then the cold front went through. The low was 9 degrees with a windchill of -1. That's right. I live in Georgia and we are expecting -1! Today the snow hit...and the town shut down. The predictions rolled in yesterday and by nightfall, schools were cancelled for today, along with everything else.
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| Our Winter Blizzard |
-1 is cold, but I give kudos to my daughter in Iowa. They finally decided to cancel church when the windchill was predicted to be -40! I'm happy in the 20's. It's better than -40. But this is the one time of year I feel we separate ourselves from being a Florida town. If it ever hits -40 there we will know Hell is freezing over.
Wait! I didn't meant Florida is Hell!! I really didn't! I simply meant if it is that cold in Florida then Hell is probably freezing over too.
As I type this, you're probably getting more snow, and your town is - again - shutting down". I remember the hills you have on the road into your house. Not good if it's covered with snow. It's a day to stay in and have some comfort good and some cocoa (or a glass wine!) But, at least you don't live in Washington DC about now where they are predicting maybe 3 feet of the white stuff. Here on Hilton Head Island, it was just torrential rain this morning - temps in the mid 50s - and it's all over now. It'll be colder tomorrow, but not freezing (at least during the day). Boring, but I'm not stranded!
ReplyDeleteI think I agree with you. I love having seasons -- even snow -- and I still do miss having a little of that. However, I don't want to be Washington DC right about now
Nor do I. The east coast is getting battered. Right now we have an inch on the road which is fine, but since we went from rain to snow it's a pretty sure bet there is ice under it and with our hills that makes it tricky. Our county took over our street so we usually get plowed out. We are one of the lucky ones. Until they show up, I'll stay here. I don't relish the thought of sliding down our hill onto the main highway.
ReplyDeleteI remember when we lived in NC, GA, and FL and oh my - when it snowed it literally shut everything down. Being from Philadelphia, my kids and I always made fun of the locals on snow days, until we realized that there is just no way to perform snow removal. So much for spending a snow day at the mall shopping!
ReplyDeleteWe are due for a good snow. It has been unseasonably warm here - 30s this past week. Thirty ABOVE zero. Last year at this time we saw MINUS 55F. Absolutely crazy. I'm not complaining.. well maybe a little. Fresh snow does wonders at making things beautiful.
Stay warm!
Sorry to take so long replying! I've been really remiss. Perhaps all this talk of cold had sent me hibernating. I keep thinking it's time for a blog post, but I've been totally uninspired. Today, I made myself sit down and at least check in.
DeleteIf you are still at 30 above zero you really are having a warm winter! I hope you get that good snow soon! Iditarod is coming! And then it will be April. Time for your big trip to the lower 48!!
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