IsThisThingOn?

I love a snow storm - especially in the extreme. To me, it's akin to the Super Bowl. Though it raged all day, and some got 2', all is finally quiet here and I can actually see the asphalt on the driveway after the rain. No need to shovel at all.  But many of my friends and neighbors are without heat and power. I get teased mercilessly for it, but it is precisely for times like these that I am your one stop, go-to gal. For decades I've borne the tired jokes/elbows in the ribs  because I have EVERYTHING -- and back ups of that. But do the teasers stop to ask why?  It's so I have enough to share with or take care of those who may need it, which has happened many times.  Each city I've lived in had some of their biggest disasters occur during my time there: I get teased about THAT, but it's serious stuff for those in harms way. Tornadoes in Chicago, Boston's Blizzard of '78, the Northridge Earthquake in LA (and the OJ murders... and the Rodney Ki...

File under Life is Great Dept:  Pull into a sh*t gas station this morning. Guy dressed in filthy brown snowsuit comes out to the pump.  Greets me with "Bon jour. Ca va?" Completely unexpected... To which I begin to reply in Spanish before my under caffeinated IQ can switch to French and appropriately answer "Tres Bien, et vous?" He takes my card. I say Merci. He waves me off with a casual "Au revoir."  As I'm closing my wallet, he walks to the bay across the way to fill another car. H e calls back to me. "Are you Lebanese?" And I'm thinking where the hell did that come from… But he's right. I am. But I'm also Italian and German. My name is so benign, I'm stunned he guessed. I laugh and shout back: "Are you Lebanese talking in French to me?" He says, "No I'm Moroccan"...  But turns out another guy, who had popped out from under a hood, is Lebanese. That guy and I chatted about what village my g...