Another Day in the Snow

Another day in the snow - but not as much fun as yesterday.  By today too much of the snow had been churned up and turned to a dirty brown slush.  Even where it was still white, it was sullied by footprints.  At least yesterday it snowed so much that your footprints were quickly covered up.  That's the thing about snow: I only really like it when appears fresh and pristine.  When it starts getting churned up, it just depresses me.  In my mind it is reduced from being a thing of beauty to simply an ugly nuisance.  In fact, in the past I've found the sight of snow still laying on the ground the day after it had fallen a trigger for depression.  In my mind it symbolised the daily struggle I went through, always made ever more difficult by things out of my control.  Thankfully, it doesn't have quite that effect on me now.  Of course, that might simply be because, at the moment, I don't have to go out and try to work in it every morning.  (Management has always been careful never to give any clear cut directions on whether we should be driving in adverse weather conditions, just telling us to use our own judgement.  Which, in practice, meant that if you drove and had an accident, they could try to deny responsibility by saying it was your decision, but if you didn't and people complained, then it was also your fault for being so unreasonable as to not drive in heavy snow).

The worst thing about this sort of weather is the way in which the disruption it apparently causes is seemingly so out of proportion.  I mean, just today I went into Sainsburys to find they had no bread (delivery problems due to the weather, although everybody else seemed to have had bread deliveries), and their chilled cabinets were all closed due to 'refigeration problems'.   Really?  Refrigeration problems?  When temperatures outside were sub-zero?  I know that I'm undoubtedly being unfair in getting so irritated by such things but, in large part it stems from my stoic determination never to have my daily routines dictated to me by things like the weather.  Damn it, I always say to myself, we aren't bloody cavemen, afraid of thunder and lightning and without the means to deal with adverse weather - we're living in an age of science and technology, where natural phenomena shouldn't present insurmountable problems.  I've always felt the same way about illness: always refusing to allow it to affect my daily routines.  But my current bout of ill health is forcing me to change my views.  Ah well, the temperature should start rising from tomorrow, so the snow will soon be gone and spring will finally arrive.  A new season will be a relief after the winter I've just endured.  (If anyone is interested, I have a new podcast, talking about my ill health up over at the Overnightscape Central.  I know it doesn't sound like a barrel of laughs, but I tried to keep it light and there's an episode of an old US radio medical soap mixed in for good measure.  You can find it here).