Damned Yankee Weather

Well, I survived my first semester teaching. It was definitely a learning experience; I will have to see what the student reviews say, but I know of a few things I definitely can improve upon. However, I may not survive my vacation...

Before moving to Arkansas, I had never heard the adjective "Yankee" used to describe anything except players on the greatest team known to man. However, it turns out it is still used for its traditional meaning, which as far as I can tell, means "anyone from farther north than I am from." For example, our department chair Myron talked about his son, when they first moved to Fort Smith after living in Alabama, referring to the apparent cold as that "damned yankee weather."

However, I think I can now be justified in using this term to apply to the ridiculous levels of snow known well to those people who live in Western New York. Perhaps I have forgotten about the first 21 years of my life spent there, but on my way to the last Bills game, on a particularly snowy and dismal day, my car slid uncontrollably as my brother yelled "We're going to get hit! We're going to get hit!" And then we did. It was my first major accident in many years, and the only solace I can take is that the guy who hit me was way more pissed off than I was.

Then, in unrelated events, I have had to pay for $2,000 worth of repairs for the power steering and ball joints and whatever the hell else has gone wrong with this retched automobile. So I may be forgiven if I have some curse words for my former home; though I still love it, I definitely don't love driving in it. Oh well, back to Arkansas and back to work.