Snowmageddon? Bring It On!

Back in 1994, I was living in Glendale, California when a 6.7 earthquake struck in Northridge, California at 4:30 am. The house shook so badly I had a hard time making it the seven steps to my son’s room. I’d just gotten out of the shower and was about to leave to go to my traffic reporting job.

There was no power, everyone was wandering outside their condos wondering what to do. My ex set up the camp stove in the garage and made coffee. Neighbors came over. We used the giant car cell phone to call people and check on them to be sure they were OK. When I drove on the streets, people were letting everyone else go since the red lights weren’t working. I was amazed. And this was LA!

It was like a spell was cast and everyone was on their best behavior. I noticed it when I was in New York, shortly after 9/11. Even a bartender said, “Yeah, since 9/11 people have been really nice. It feels like a different place.”

This morning it happened again. Mother Nature was apparently making up for any snow she’s missed dumping on Pittsburgh in the last one hundred years with a massive snowfall. And I do mean massive!

My rudimentary measurements say we’ve gotten a foot of snow so far and it’s still snowing. (I go by how much piles up on the small cafe table on my balcony.) But it has holes in the top so even that isn’t really accurate.

But here’s what I did notice. In this neighborhood, where folks say hello sometimes, but people mostly keep to themselves, people were outside. I was awakened by my neighbor Mike, shoveling at 6:30. Then at 7:30, my neighbor Jerome, the world’s best neighbor, was out shoveling MY driveway! He’s done it before because he is a total sweetheart.

I came out to join him and saw another neighbor shoveling his drive. He and I chatted too. The three men all have snow blowers (because they are men and apparently this is what men do). But they end up shoveling again because the snow just blows where they don’t want it to blow. Note to snow blower manufacturers: Please make future snow blowers with an adjustable blower that you can turn in any direction.

Sorry for that digression, but the point is everyone was doing their best to help. Once the snow plow came through and cleared the road, all that work the guys did was covered in a foot of snow at the end of their driveways so, since kindness begets kindness, I shoveled that out for them. (It didn’t matter because snow just keeps falling, but it’s the thought that counts.) It’s also the fact that we’re all doing our best to be thoughtful neighbors, which makes me feel really good about where I live.

The worse the situation, the better people seem to behave and that leaves me with a tiny bit of hope for the world. If I can just get Mother Nature to ease up. It is so beautiful though! Walking in the woods after a snowfall, when the tree branches look like iced gingerbread and all you hear is the crunch of snow underfoot, makes you grateful to be alive to witness such beauty.

On another note, if you’re wondering when the paperback and ebook will be coming out for my humorous memoir, Come on Down! A Little Story About My Italian Mom’s Big Dream, I was hoping it would be in early February but circumstances are conspiring against me.

Trust me, I will let you know as soon as I know, but in the meantime, thank you to those of you who’ve asked.

If you want to order the audiobook, and don’t know what it’s about, it’s my slightly irreverent, but loving take on growing up in western Pennsylvania with an Italian mom unlike any other (and very possibly a medieval time traveler). If that sounds like fun (which it is) just click on this link: https://www.frantunno.com/ If you’ve listened to the audiobook and liked it, please take a moment to leave a review. I need all the help I can get.

And please tell your friends about it on social media or in person, especially your Italian friends. There are more than 16 million Italian Americans in this country and a lot of them had mothers who chased them with a spoon, and had statues of saints in every room of the house. so I know it would bring a smile to their faces if they just knew about it.

As always (and definitely not mandatory) if you enjoy this blog and would like to be a supporter so I can dig myself out of the horrendous debt I’ve put myself in while self-publishing, just click on buymeacoffee.com/FranTunno And thank you!