The Winter of 2012

Synopsis;
A personal view of New Jersey.

I know that New Jersey gets a really bad rap sometimes.

Comedians love beating up NJ.


TV is also no friend of New Jersey

The Sopranos… We are all mobbed up and have a combined IQ of 23.
Boardwalk Empire… The story of the Soprano’s older brothers.
The Jersey Shore…
These numbskulls aren’t even from New Jersey
they’re from Staten Island; my other home
Jerseylicious… Are you kidd’n me or what?
The Real Housewives of New Jersey … Really?!!
These are the “Real” Housewives? Don’t get me started;
this show makes “Mob Wives” look like a group of female
MENSA alumni discussing theoretical physics!

Now don’t get too envious, but my niece actually lives in Hawaii…
Yes the one place on Earth that could be called a true Garden of Eden
(as opposed to the real “Garden State”).
But if you live in that idyllic place,
where the temperature is always perfect,
the views are always spectacular,
the people are always friendly and beautiful,
In this perpetual perfection,
even Hawaiians say you become accustomed to its beauty.
I suppose that’s why people love to visit this paradise so often.
Now don’t get me wrong, give me the opportunity to live in Hawaii…
See how fast I’ll say “Seeyalater,  Jersey…
where’s my plane ticket!”  As I wing it to Newark Airport.

But I am happy to say I like New Jersey… most times

On October 28, 2011 we all experienced that crazy pre-Halloween
blizzard and I was caught in it,
driving from Saddle Brook to my home,
a 45 minute drive which took me 7 hours!!!
It looked like a war zone when I got home.
Power lines and  trees down,
cars mangled from multiple car wrecks...
What a disaster!

I was cursing the snow,
my tires,
the slow drivers in front of me and the maniacs behind me,
the missing plow trucks,
the lack of road salt
but mostly,
I was cursing the fact
that I was so incredibly stupid to venture out on that day at all.

And while cursing New Jersey,
I was wishing that I lived in Hawaii where they have no snow.
I thought that if the winter started in late spring,
we were in for one hell of a winter.

I pictured burning out my snow blower and all my fire wood…
I pictured ice dams on my roof and water leaks in the house…
I pictured driving through canyons of plowed snow in my neighborhood…
I pictured the last pile of snow melting away in late May 2012…

But one of the things I do love about our Garden State
is the change of seasons.
From summer to winter and back again,

I love the change of air temperature,
The heat of a summer day, the sun beating on your skin.
The shiver of the wind as it rips through your down parker
on a day when the wind chill factor reads -15 below.
The first hint of spring when the crocuses break through the soil
and the smell of blossoms fill the air.
The way the state looks, the change of colors…But that winter didn’t materialize and neither did the snow.And now I do have one question…

Where the heck did winter go?
And to be quite honest…
I missed that winter of 2012 that never happened!