Grounded By Winter Pt. 2
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.
This post is the second in a two-part opus on Upstate New York winters, from a non-native Saratogian. Check out the first part here.
Speaking of shopping, some hints might be helpful for an Upstate newbie in the clothing arena as well. I was told to, “go to the outlets!” or peruse a store called “L.L.Bean.” I had never shopped at L.L.Bean. I had never needed to. This “tip” led to my mindlessly scrolling online through pages and pages of gear I had no idea what to do with. Since most of what I bought was wrong, I’ll tell you what, over time, I learned was right: fleece-lined everything. I now have huge ugly fleece-lined sweats to throw over whatever I’m wearing to walk the dog, fleece-lined tights to wear under any outfit as an added layer that doesn’t mess up your outfit (because as it turns out, no one wears those bulky “L.L.Bean” sweaters in Saratoga), and warm fleece-lined sweatshirts to wear at home. “Fleece-lined” is not something that those of us new to winter have ever heard of. Give us a fighting chance as we blindly shop on Amazon, and share that phrase with us. We’re cold!
Sadly, I’m not the one to speak about winter driving, because I refuse to do it. (Hence my getting by with my ridiculously rudimentary ice-scraper thingie.) Here’s something that seems to be hard to grasp by Capital Region lifers: It’s not exactly that I’m scared to do it. It’s that I truly don’t know how. When learning to drive as a teenager in Florida, I was taught how to pump my brakes in hurricane-worthy rain, but was given no instruction on driving in snow or on ice. And nope, I’ve never “driven my car around an empty parking lot after a snowstorm to get used to the feeling,” because I’ve never been in a snowstorm.
Winter driving questions you should be prepared to answer: Do I need snow tires or no? Why don’t you park your car inside your garage before a big snowstorm instead of shoveling it out the next day? And, why are some windshield wipers in the cars parked downtown sticking straight up (so they don’t freeze?) and others have not done this? I still don’t have answers to any of these queries. Except for the garage thing, although I find the answer as confusing as the question; apparently, one’s two-car garage isn’t for cars at all. It’s for…storage?
(PS: If you truly aren’t driving often, do regularly start your car to let it run for a few minutes. Apparently this frigid thing isn’t great for cars.)
I also have a few random snippets to share with all modern Saratoga transplants. Everywhere delivers these days—even Target, in case you run out of paper towels but decide that’s not worth risking your life for by driving in inclement weather (that your neighbors think is “nothing”). But the apps do turn off when the weather is too bad, so make sure you’re stocked before a storm. Before the season starts and places run out, please buy rock salt. This took me two winters to figure out—I thought it was something spread about only by the professionals in those big truck-like vehicles. (I know, I know.) And don’t leave things that could freeze and explode in your car—a bottle of wine comes to mind. (Face palm emoji.) And finally, let’s talk about socks.
Prior to my moving here, I sent friends a photo of myself, panicked. It was a chilly (lower 50s brrrrrrr) morning in California, and I realized that I was wearing everything I had to stay warm while walking my dog. But I was soon moving to Saratoga Springs, where it gets even colder, so I snapped a pic and asked for advice on what else I could possibly put on. A one-word answer immediately appeared in the return text: socks. (Later, I would also learn that what I had considered my “winter coat” was actually, here at least, an “early fall jacket”.) Prior to my stocking up on warm, fuzzy, wool hiking socks, “socks” were what I wore to the gym and heard during the classic dad joke: “All I got for Christmas was socks!” or whatever. This year, I really did get socks for Christmas. Quite a few pairs actually.
And I was thrilled.
—Abby