Caught in a Winter Storm

To no surprise, thanks to the local news and social media influencers, the winter storm came and… is still here. I know living in Ohio is paired with the occasional winter snow, but the snow and extreme wind are something I don’t think I’ll ever get used to. 

Snow in Lebanon, Ohio

Being away from home for college, home being Lebanon, Ohio, where the winter storm is supposed to be worse, it’s hard not to worry. To prepare for the storm, besides watching all the Instagram reels that flooded my feed, I went to Aldi, as I normally do for my weekly groceries, and for some shelf-stable foods. This Aldi trip was unlike any I’ve been on before. The parking lot was nearly full, and there was a noticeable scarcity of shopping carts. I went into the store with a mental note of things that I wanted to purchase. I spent almost an hour trying to navigate the aisles with carts surrounding me in all directions. When I tried to leave, it took me over five minutes to make a right turn out of the parking lot to get onto the main road. For reference, this task usually takes the standard three to six seconds of waiting at the stop sign before turning.   

Snow outside my apartment at ONU

After putting all my groceries away, I did my laundry because there was no way I was willingly going to walk outside today or tomorrow to make the trek to the laundry room. A task that should’ve taken two hours, from washer to folded, quickly turned into three because the dryer did not dry my clothes in the first cycle. 

On Saturday, I spent the morning in Dicke serving on a student panel. Following that, I spent the night with some friends, including dinner, game night and a movie. Although this wasn’t practical snowstorm prep, it gave me some social interaction before I was going to be snowed in for potentially days at a time. 

Today, Sunday, I slept in. After the first week of school, I couldn’t have needed this more. I woke up, went to church and called my mom. While on the call, my mom was notified that my brother’s school was cancelled on Monday. Looking at Ada’s forecast for Monday and Tuesday, I’m assuming Northern will follow suit. 

I may not be driving in the fast lane for a bit, so I’ll catch you next time!