Totally Chill by Bonnie Le Hamilton

Okay, I don’t understand why so many people have panicked. The stores didn’t say they were going to close for any time at all, let alone an indefinite amount of time. They have instituted special hours, but I haven’t heard of a single store closing indefinitely.

And I honestly thought I’d seen panic when I lived in Virginia.

Our first winter there, we had a good laugh while people panicked when the weatherman only predicted about a couple of inches.

I did go the store during this panic, it was time for my regular shopping trip. One woman saw how little I had in my cart and frowned at me. “Are you sure that’s going to get you through until the stores open again? Lord only knows how long we’ll be snowed in.”

“Lady, as warm as it is, if it lays, I’d be surprised,” I said and walked away.

Another time I was in Navy Exchange food court when I noticed teeny tiny flakes falling and melting into the planting bed outside the window. I mean it was melting, so no problem. Seconds later, a chair went crashing to the floor as another customer noticed and jumped to his feet announcing that it was snowing.

Within seconds I was the only customer in the place.

One of the employees approached me asking me why I wasn’t leaving yet.

I glanced out at the gridlock in the parking lot then glanced at my watch before facing her and saying, “The roads will be clear in about twenty minutes.”

Twenty minutes was how long it took me to drive from the base to my house, so I figured if those people who panicked were twenty minutes ahead of me, I’d be fine.

I was.

The funniest incident was the year we went to the circus. Two years prior, a skiff was predicted for opening night – we got more like two inches. The next year, a couple of inches was predicted – we got more like six inches and everyone had to stay in the Scope until the plows could come through.

We had tickets for opening night, and a blizzard was forecast.

I insisted we go early, so we’d be able to get a spot in the limited underground parking, so we wouldn't have to traipse through the snow leaving.

As we got out of our car, I noticed a lot of people with sleeping bags, pillows, and coolers stuffed in their vehicles, and as we got in line, we found everyone discussing what preparations they’d made for getting stuck there overnight.

They looked at us, a young couple with an infant, and asked my husband what he’d brought just in case.

His response?

“My Idaho driver’s license.”

Enough said.

That night we got a skiff. Just enough to make it a little slick driving up out of the underground garage. But no problem, three or four employees of the garage were at the exit to manually push the cars up to the road. In front of us was a Jeep. We waited for it to be pushed out, then before the guys could get behind our little wagon, Tom drove out of the garage.

I looked back to see the stunned expression on those workers’ faces. And we might have laughed all the way home, but Tom was too busy doing all he could to avoid all other drivers who were fishtailing all over the road.

They didn’t know how to handle the snow.

Now I suppose some of you are thinking that I might have panicked if a hurricane came by Norfolk while I lived there because after all, I am from Idaho.

Well, guess what, I endured both Hugo and Andrew. The only time I panicked was the first time, and that was because I didn’t know how to protect our windows. And yes, I had to run to the store of supplies, once I knew what I needed for the windows, but I didn’t need things like batteries or bottled water or even groceries.

I married an Eagle Scout. “Be prepared” is their motto. Let alone that we’re LDS and we’re supposed to have a year’s supply. Ergo the only thing I didn’t have was what I hadn’t known I’d be needing.

And aside from Tom being an Eagle Scout, our church has a scripture that reads, “If ye are prepared, ye shall not fear.”

We also have a scripture that says everything The Lord says is both temporal and spiritual. So, the above scripture means if we are prepared both spiritually and temporally, we shall not fear, because we’ll have no reason to fear.

Ergo, even though I’m at high risk, I’m totally chill enjoying a few days of being able to stay home and write.

Happy writing everyone!