Virginia Snow Storm

I'm a Chicago girl. I remember walking home in three feet of snow during the great blizzard of 1967 – in the days when we had to wear skirts to school – in the days before doppler radar.

After plunging my legs over and over again through snow banks so deep I had to bring them up practically to my shoulders to move them, I came home completely exhausted. What normally took only 20 minutes to walk home at a slow leisurely pace took me more than an hour.

By the time I got home, my feet had swollen so much, I couldn't remove my boots, and I had frostbite on both my hands and my feet. I was wheezing with an asthma attack so bad I couldn't catch my breath.

Yes, Chicago girls KNOW what REAL snow storms are.

So imagine my surprise when I came out to Virginia to help my son and his wife with their kids, and on Tuesday this week, schools closed because they EXPECTED snow. The snow didn't come until nearly 8pm. The following day, Virginia schools closed again because they EXPECTED snow. Guess what. No snow at all, but Taylor got to stay home from school again anyway. All I kept thinking of Virginians was, what wimps!

Seems the entire state of Virgina and Washington, D.C. shut down when snow is expected. So when weather forecasters predicted a snow storm for tonight and tomorrow, I laughed. Apparently a sprinkling of snow is all it takes to send these people inside.

Well, that was my thinking until Southwest Airlines called to cancel my flight on Saturday. Hmm, maybe Virginia will actually be getting snow after all. According to weather.com, we're expecting a SIGNIFICANT amount of snow. That's what I get for calling Virginians wimps.