I am a Minnesotan. I lived most of my life in a suburb of Minneapolis and snow doesn't scare me. I don't like driving in it, but I can.
Or maybe I should say I could. I've been living in Atlanta long enough now that I might have lost my skills.
What I'm not used to are ice storms. I only remember having one in Minnesota while I lived there. It was the only two snow days I ever got while I was in school. I remember coverage of city buses sliding sideways down slight inclines because they had no traction. I remember the trees were covered in ice and took pictures of it because it was so amazing.
So of course, Georgia has an ice storm prediction up for the weekend and I'm semi-freaking out. I'm not worried about going anywhere. It's not supposed to get bad until Friday night and I'll just stay home all weekend. Not a big deal.
Why am I freaking out then?
Losing power.
When I still lived in Minnesota, we had a thunderstorm go through at the end of May and it knocked out power to the house. For six days. SIX DAYS! When I say that I am not a pioneer, this is how I know. It was literally the most miserable six days in existence.
I can live without television. I can live without music. But there honestly is nothing you can do once the sunsets if you don't have power. Want to read? Yeah, can't see the page. EBooks? How are you going to recharge the reader? Phone? Laptop? Same problem.
I do have a couple of power banks and I'll have all my electronic equipment charged to full when the storm hits, but who knows how long the power will be down? I never thought I'd be without power in Minneapolis for six days, but there you go.
There's also food in the fridge and the freezer to consider, too.
I went grocery shopping and spent a ridiculous amount of money on nonperishable items. I also bought powdered milk and gallons of bottled water. If worse comes to worse, I can make milk and eat cereal.
But I hate losing power. Hate it.
And I hate thinking about how dangerous the ice is for people to be out in, either in a vehicle or on foot.
Nope, I'm definitely not pioneer material.
I scheduled some blog posts ahead of time so that it the worst happens, y'all will still have content. Hopefully, I can post an extra one saying the storm missed me. Or at least the storm didn't take down the power.
