Who is the biggest and the baddest?
If ever I were out to prove that the newspaper is a powerful tool, this past month of opinion columns would be high on my list of examples.
First Mother Nature provided a light dusting of snow and I wrote about how much I disliked the white stuff after growing up in the northern plains. I expressed my pleasure that snow in Kansas doesn't ever seem to last long. Bad move.
Within days we had a bizarre sleet storm that looked like drifts of snow, but really wasn't. Everything turned icy. Roads were treacherous, schools closed, and events were canceled. A couple of days of weak sunshine and slightly warming temperatures merely created a top layer of solid ice. So I wrote another column about Kansas weather. Among other things I was bit sarcastic about Kansas snow rarely being the soft, fluffy kind that comes straight down. Bigger bad move.
I admit I also did some whining in the opinion column that week. I had no idea, of course, that Mother Nature has a subscription to our weekly newspaper. I must have hit a nerve, because she really let us have it with this last wave of winter snow, which was soft and fluffy and came straight down
I was honestly just spoofing you when I started writing this and claimed to be powerful enough to have captured Mother Nature's ire with my columns. I didn't REALLY think my comments were capable of generating weather.
But then Monday morning I got an e-mail from a Peabody woman who commutes to Wichita on a daily basis. The e-mail said, "I HOPE YOU ARE HAPPY! Is THIS snow big and fluffy enough for you?"
Oops.
So, just in case Big Mama Nature is reading again, I am going to put a lid on it after I say one more little thing.
The Mister and I were in Tulsa for several days this past week. While he was working I was supposed to be doing a diligent search of antique malls and quaint shops. But I was unable to do my part on the trip because the city of Tulsa got hit by the same sleet storm we did (except they got more of it) and they were still buried. That city has a lousy plan in place for snow removal. I am sure there are lots of reasons for that and I expect some of them are good ones. But it is a lousy plan just the same.
A week after the sleet hit they were still dealing with ice-covered sidewalks, streets, bridges, and parking lots. We even saw bright sunshine one day with temperatures in the 40s (making lots of slush), but no one was attempting to move anything off of the streets.
I've got to tell you that I will take our Peabody city crews and Marion County crews ANY day over what Tulsa has. I know, I know — we have fewer streets and roads to clean. Perhaps we are better prepared. Maybe our city and county employees just have a better sense of how to do their jobs. At any rate, I am glad I live here and I want them to know I appreciate what they do.
And now I am through discussing the weather and Mother Nature. I just wonder who was talking trash about her in Tulsa?
— SUSAN MARSHALL
