Normally Strange

When it blizzards at bedtime, normal people think, "Yahoo! Snow day tomorrow!" . . . which means a sleep in, and a day off work.

Volunteer firefighters are not normal people. When it blizzards they think, "I'd better lay out my clothes carefully because I may get called out at 3:00 AM."

Normal people that are smart think, "The roads are bad. Better change my travel plans." Volunteer firefighters think, "Better brush off the car and be ready to roll, because some of those normal people aren't smart and won't change their travel plans."

It isn't a trite cliche to say that firefighters run in while everyone else is running out, and it doesn't just apply to fires. We were called out at 3:00ish this morning to a double tractor trailer crash. I stepped out into the howling gale (after putting on my carefully layed out clothes) and thought, "This is nuts." We made our way to the hall and were just ready to head out again into storm when we were cancelled. Just enough of a call to keep the newest Upsala superstition alive.

Here's the view out our front window in the morning after things calmed down a bit.


The stone pillar on the left is about three feet high, not counting the sundial, which gives you an idea how much snow fell overnight.

And here's the car just before we dug it out.

The good thing about my new-ish role as a volunteer firefighter is that I have a semi normal job at a very normal college . . . and the roads were closed for a good part of the day . . . which meant I got to sleep in and take the day off work.

There's always a silver lining.