Tuesday, 12/3

Okay, I’ll admit it. I’m not a true Yooper.

Now I say this despite the fact that I was born and raised in the U.P., and I chose to come back and live here. But we all know it’s true; I’ve written enough in here about how I don’t like to hunt, camp, 4-wheel, or do any other of the stereotypical things that “Yoopers” do. And all the snow we’ve received the past six days has proven, once again, about how I apparently am not a true Yooper.

After all, I like plowed roads.

This all started Sunday, when I heard from an acquaintance in in Republic. When I asked her about the weather, she said it was snowing so hard she couldn’t see her barn, and that the road she lived on “hadn’t been plowed yet. They’ll probably get to it tomorrow night or so”. And that blew my mind in two ways--one was that is apparently takes three days to plow a road where she lives.

The other was that my friend, obviously a true Yooper, was okay with that.

Can you imagine (and maybe some of you can) being stuck inside your house for three (or more) days, unable to leave? You can’t get your car out to go to work or school, or to the store, or to anything. You’re just. . .there, and nowhere else. If there’s a major emergency, like your power goes out (which did happen to her for awhile after the first snow the day before Thanksgiving), or if you get sick, or if your wi-fi goes out, you run out of DVDs & chocolate, help can’t get to you. It’s you and whatever you have around, hunkered down for the duration. You’re not getting out, and nothing’s getting in.

Yikes!

This may be a sign of some personal weakness on my part, but I don’t think I could handle that. I think I’d go stir crazy if I didn’t have at least the possibility of leaving. I mean, if the weather was as bad as it obviously was around the vast majority of the U.P. this past weekend, I probably wouldn’t WANT to leave my home, but I’d at least want the option to get out. I’d at least want to know that, if I needed to, I could get out of my home and walk (or drive) somewhere. I’d at least want to know that, if need be, I could get my power turned back on, or that I could get emergency help, or I could get take-out delivered.

But to know that none of that’s possible, and to be okay with that fact? That obviously takes a much hardier constitution than I seem to have, so my admiration goes out to anyone who could handle a situation like that, including my friend in Republic and, I’m guessing, many of you. You’re obviously true Yoopers, and you should be proud of that fact.

I’m, obviously, not. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m gonna go look out the window and see if the plows have finally cleared off the sidewalk. After all, I don’t want to melt as I walk to work today, right?

(jim@wmqt.com), much more wimp than Yooper.