Foot Shooting: Geoff Style

Some people are angry at me over my last blog post, which they feel was… heartless. Ouch. That wasn’t my intent, but I see how it happened. I take responsibility.

Cold can be deadly. People and pets can be hurt.

My point was (please let me know if I’m digging the hole deeper) we as a society are much more able to deal with cold than we were in our grandparent’s time. And we do provide shelters of last resort for the least fortunate among us.

However, there will still be people who stupidly leave pets out, or don’t take advantage of what’s available personally for them. Collectively, most of us agree to watch out for these folks in spite of themselves. Thankfully, those in peril are a very tiny sliver of the population.

It seems wrong to ramp up the fear factor as if it’s the end of the world. For the vast majority of us, just respecting the power of cold is enough.

8 thoughts on “Foot Shooting: Geoff Style”

  1. When you have spent most of your life where the temperature rarely dips below the freezing mark, it is difficult to understand what it is like living in a place like CT. Before I moved from the southwest to the northeast, I was told I would probably hate living here during the winter months. My mother was certainly right on the mark. Come winter I turn into a bear and rarely leave the house until spring. I really feel sorry for animals that are left out when it is bitterly cold. Also the people who are homeless. If I had a job, I would have been fired the first year for not showing for work. Go thing you can order your groceries online and have them brought to your door and other things. Once a California girl, always a California girl.

  2. I agreed with your first post, and I agree with this one. And the irony if it all is, the small percentage that are in peril from the cold, don’t usually have access to the dire warnings!

  3. It’s not just the cold that gets hyped. Snow? Let’s face it, short of that one freak storm that dumped a couple feet on CT, it’s really not a big deal. Weathermen say eight inches and people run out and buy bread and milk as if they’ll never see a grocery store again. Folks, this is not Georgia – we have plows. That eight inches will be all cleaned up in a day, two at most.

    And don’t even talk to me about the panic when someone says “hurricane.” Now, if you live within sight of the coast or in an area that tends to flood, yeah, then you’re allowed to worry. But for most of us an average hurricane just amounts to a big PITA with no power for a week. I refuse to panic unless one comes along that looks like the ’38.

  4. When I left for work this morning, it was -7°. The moisture in my nose froze in the 10 steps to my car (thank God for remote starters). My thoughts at the time were how I remembered this kind of cold from when I was younger. A 30 yr old guy at work said he didn’t remember it ever being so cold very often and I seem to remember it being this cold most of the winter when I was young. When I say young, I mean from about age 11 to mid-20’s. I’ve been saying for years that the winters haven’t been as harsh or cold as they used to be. My husband and I were talking about how when we were kids we always had ice skates because we could skate in the local ponds all winter. Not to say we haven’t had freezing weather in all this time but not the single digit/negative digits that I so clearly remember. One of the things I used to do when I was teen and had to walk everywhere was walking on top of frozen snow to see far I could go without falling through it because the crust was so frozen. Whether it’s been because of global warming or just a natural cycle in weather, we’ve been spoiled for quite awhile.

  5. In a country where corporations run everything
    I believe the local Medea are being paid to beat
    the snow drum. I never watch the local news and
    I refuse to whip into a bread and milk frenzy.

  6. I can see how your post wasn’t taken well. I know all too well there are often not enough shelter beds, far too many kids do not have decent warm coats, and staying inside small apartments for long times can be challenging. Just think what it is like waiting for the bus when you do not have a car and are expected at your early morning minimum wage job. My house has a fairly new boiler but I can’t help but think about folks with old, poorly functioning systems. I get we all managed just fine in past years and the weather can by such hype. Still, in this diverse society, our experiences are not everyone’s.

  7. Next time we have a snowstorm followeed by brutal cold you are all cordially invited to join ME at work and help dig cars out of the snow and move them around for 11.5 hours.

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