Grounded By Winter Pt. 1
You might have breezily met friends for lunch during this week’s ice storm, but life is very different for the non-natives among us.
I had a one-track mind upon scrambling home on a recent icy evening. I had come straight from the airport after an odd (and extended), pandemic-era holiday trip visiting the friends and family I missed last year. But I wasn’t mulling over any of that.
Instead, I bee-lined to the Thermastat.
Shaking, I threw down my luggage.
The house seemed reasonably not frozen. A good sign.
I raced across the living room and then let out the breath I hadn’t realized I was holding.
The heat had indeed been left on by my frazzled, pre-holiday self.
This drama, native Saratogians, was warranted. See, I learned this lesson the hard way going on three years ago—because when you move here from a warmer clime as I did, it is truly a trial-by-fire situation. It doesn’t matter how many times you ask questions like, “I’ve never lived in winter like this before, so what do I need to know?” Hardy Upstaters simply shrug and say, “You’ll be fine!”
We’re not fine.
If we’re asking, it’s because we need help. It’s become clear to me that while Saratogians are warm and hospitable overall, you guys do take certain wintery things for granted, and aren’t keeping crucial information from us non-natives on purpose. So I’ve created a little tip sheet for the next time a newbie like myself asks you, “Anything I should know before it snows?”
Yes, always say, yes.
First, you do indeed need to tell a person who hasn’t lived in winter conditions before to leave the heat on. At all times. My first winter, I left for a week-long trip for Christmas and turned everything off, like one would in the eco-obsessed state of California, where I used to live. I came home to a nightmare of cracked radiators and exploded pipes—and a very angry landlord.
Second, you may not need these accessories, but here’s a quick shopping list to give your new winter wimp of a friend:
Yaktrax—you laugh, but we have never, ever walked on ice of any kind and aren’t interested in breaking a hip at this age just because of a slippery sidewalk.
Hand warmers that we might even keep in our pockets in weather you deem “chilly” but we process as “freezing” (the old-fashioned, single-use kind or the fancy new recharging options).
Whatever ice-scrapers you would recommend. I have no further info on that one because to this day I use some old, stolen one that elicits snickers, snickers that are nothing compared to how badly I was laughed at when I called it an ice pick.
Nothing we need to worry about, huh? Oh, but there’s so much more. Check back tomorrow for the second installment of winter advice from a three-year Saratogian who previously preferred to live in places like Florida, Vegas California and Costa Rica…
—Abby