The big storm as started, some driving snow, the winds picking up. I took a polarized photo of the storm, it captured the ominous feel of the cold and the snow.  I heard a lot from the men in town who love to gossip and alarm people sometimes, much dire talk about the storm and the damage it might wreak: downed power lines, frozen pipes, life-threatening cold.

A good friend, new to the area, was in a near panic after all of the hysteria she was hearing in down – one cafe owner suggested she might find herself without heat or food tomorrow. He scared her half to death.

I told her he loves drama, I assured her we would all be alive and functioning on Monday, and if the power got knocked out, we would all find some warm places to be, and the power crews would come to fix it.

One man at the hardware store suggested people might die.. I attribute this hyper-alarm to the commercialized and corporatized weather. It is now profitable to scare people, and make more money. yes, this is a big storm and it should be taken seriously, it should not be taken with panic because panic draws more views which means more advertising revenue.

Just a few years ago, everyone on a farm had a small radio connected to the National Weather Service, they told us what was coming in a reserved and calm way. We often had some awful weather, we never thought to panic about it. There is no point to panic about things I can’t help. I used to panic all the time about things I couldn’t change or help. I finally saw that there was no point to it.

Sadly, wisdom comes from struggle, not ease.

I just took this photo out in the rising storm. a couple of inches of snow on the ground. We put a heat bulb in the chicken roost and put their heated water inside of the coop. They won’t be going anywhere for awhile. The worst of this storm is five or six hours away. We will wake up to another world. I might sneak out in the middle of the night to take a peek at the howling winds and driving, drifting snow.