From A Distance
By: Larry Gordon
After all this time, this could have been my first major snowstorm without any snow. Indeed, snow is a beautiful and visually poetic natural phenomenon. That is, unless it’s up to your knees and there’s someplace you have to go in the morning after a full night of snowfall.
I’m writing these words midwinter in South Florida, where there are plenty of Home Depots and Costcos, but no snow shovels or sidewalk salt to be had. It’s even difficult to find a pair of gloves down here.
If you’re a New Yorker or New Jerseyan and you happen to be down South, just think of all you’re missing. One of last week’s weather maps showing the different types of weather fronts was being passed around social media trying to prognosticate as best as possible how much snow was going to fall over parts of the Northeast.
A lot of the talk and diagrams and forecasts were conjecture, but then again, you never know when it’s really going to happen. The schools and yeshivas have to be especially careful considering that many are coming back after anywhere from seven to 12 days of midwinter vacation.
The right-leaning yeshivas that fought this idea of having a break in the middle of winter are in an especially tough spot when there’s a snowstorm looming. A few years ago, they finally gave in to the pressure and came up with a winter recess without calling it that. Somehow, this break ended up being called, “Yeshiva Week.”
A more apt description would be “No Yeshiva Week,” as that is the sum total of what this interlude is all about. Everyone needs a few days off from their daily routine once in a while.
The new mayor in New York, the socialist Zohran Mamdani, announced over last weekend that regardless of the amount of snow that falls, New York public schools will have remote learning. It was not a popular decision.
Something’s going on this little sphere we live on. On Sunday, it was 90 degrees in the Florida Everglades, and at the same time, minus 54 degrees in remote parts of Minnesota. This past Sunday, as these words were being penned, it was 85 degrees in Boca Raton. While the weather was so good down here, I figured I’d go for a swim and for the first time in decades, I took a chance and went out to get a haircut at a barber shop that I found by Googling “Barber shop near me.” More about that escapade shortly.
But first a few observations about this almost nationwide snowstorm from our southern perch. Just about everyone I know is frozen in place, so to speak. Flights from Tel Aviv to New York that were supposed to leave this past Saturday night were rescheduled for Wednesday evening. The big yeshiva breakers in Florida have all had their Sunday and Monday flights cancelled, so now the race is to see who can get out of the Sunshine State first.
No one is really in a rush because it’s a so-called level playing field. Everyone’s in the same predicament; no one can budge. This might be the first time I’m holed up someplace warm with the icy temperatures at the other end of our plans. Usually, it’s freezing where we are and we’re forced to deal with the frustration of not being able to catch a flight to someplace warm and sunny.
This past Sunday alone there were 10,000 flight cancellations and 800,000 homes without power. Now, for the rest of the week, the airlines have to slowly and methodically get things back on schedule, get their pilots, planes, and crews in place, and hopefully by the end of the week (if there are no more storms) fly everyone back home.
The weather is just one aspect of what forces airlines to cancel flights. For most airports, there is a system that clears runways efficiently and quickly. The more pressing point of contention is where the planes are located, where the pilots and staff are, and how many consecutive hours they have worked.
Am I missing this snowstorm of epic proportions? Maybe just for a few minutes once it started at about 3 a.m. on Sunday morning. It’s always pretty and impressive at the beginning of any snowfall, but once there’s two feet of snow on the ground, it’s not that pretty anymore. Then, like this week, with the temperatures brutally cold, the ice sets in and the slip-sliding begins. It’s been a while, but as in past years, the ice and snow are going to be there for a while. It was really pretty on Sunday with kids and grandkids building snow statues. Now what?
Read more of Larry Gordon’s articles at 5TJT.com. Follow 5 Towns Jewish Times on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter for updates and live videos. Comments, questions, and suggestions are welcome at 5TJT.com and on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter
