First of all, this kind of event is rare. Yes Buffalo gets frequent winter snow, and yes it gets tiresome sometimes, but the big storms in Buffalo come at different times than the rest of the North’s storms and therefore Buffalo gets singled out for publicity. When the upper Midwest gets clobbered, or New England or the East Coast, Buffalo often gets no snow at all, but people just assume it does because it must ALWAYS snow in Buffalo. Whatever. This time Buffalo (or more precisely areas near Buffalo) got a ton. And?

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And people dig out. Is digging out some kind of calamity? I would call it life. If it’s not snow, let’s be honest, it’s something else. Problems are part of life, and the physical, shovelable ones have a certain clarity and resolution to them. And the really big storms? Memorable! Heroic, even, in a way. People pay money and travel far distances to do something physically challenging and visually stunning. Huge snowstorms are part adventure. The photos I’ve seen are breathtaking. The walkways people are carving are astounding. And did you notice something? The people in the pictures with their shovels are what? They’re SMILING, is what. They have carved a path to where they want to go and they have won.