<p>So, I know all us Easterners spent all the months leading up to your kids coming out here assuring you that snow is fun, no one wears boots, forget the long underwear, blah blah blah.</p>
<p>But now, we’ve thrown at your kids bitter, bonechilling cold, gale-force winds, ten feet of snow (in some places), and now, the mother of all ice storms.</p>
<p>We’re sorry; we think it’s been pretty gruesome, too!</p>
<p>Anyone ready to go back to Sunny Southern California yet??</p>
<p>So far DS is fine…family in NE is ready to move to Sunny SoCal but he is holding up.</p>
<p>Our D adapted to New England just fine. Of course, this semester she’s in Eastern Europe, missing this particular year’s storms. Her first year, she was sitting in a window seat in her house, looking out upon a Dickensian snow storm, and found it very romantic. The romance had worn off by the following March.</p>
<p>N.B., most of us out here react to “Cali” the same way someone from the Bay Area reacts to “Frisco,” e.g., what in the bloody blue Pleiades is that barbarian talking about?! It doth grate upon the ear. D had never heard the term until meeting some Easterners at a summer camp.</p>
<p>SoCal son just loves New Hampshire, altho he was teased by his Yankee friends about his large down jacket being more appropriate “for an Antarctica expedition.” OTOH, I haven’t heard from him today as the 12 inches of snow is falling, making the landscape a winter wonderland. :D</p>
<p>btw: it will be 80+ in some parts of SoCal tomorrow.</p>
<p>Thedad–call me a “Jerseyite” and we are even.</p>
<p>Or talk about “back east” when you mean a particular city.</p>
<p>I’ve been bopping on weather.com between my two kids college towns just to see what it’s like where they are. My daughter in the midwest has had the worst winter since she started college in '03. My son, in SW Virgina has had at least one snow day and a couple of delays but all in all a milder winter temperature-wise then he is used to in PA.</p>
<p>My son called from Cornell about an hour ago. The University has cancelled classes – I gather this <em>never</em> happens. There’s over two feet on the ground and more coming down.</p>
<p>Dartmouth also cancelled classes for today, though DS is working at his campus research job. Today is the nastiest weather I’ve seen for a while – and we spent 7 years in Minnesota! Ice storm on top of snow just isn’t fun. Could I please move back to So Cal now?</p>
<p>My South AL daughter at Dartmouth is in “full hurricane mode”. She said it was snowing sideways, sideways precipitation being a familiar sight for her. She said they were calling it a nor’easter.</p>
<p>The storm seems to have wimped out in the Boston area. Our school district has not cancelled classes. Harvard prides itself never to have cancelled classes because of weather in its 350+ years history. It looks like a lot of sludge, though, and it’s bound to turn to ice tonight. It won’t be pleasant tomorrow.</p>
<p>Dad: Funny, I am a lifelong CA person and had not really heard Cali until we moved away and now we hear it, but it does not annoy me- it’s cute :)</p>
<p>Did Harvard really not cancel classes in the Blizzard of 1978 – where just a few miles from Boston in Norton (think Wheaton College) we had 48 inches of snow with 10-12 or more foot drifts? 2500 cars stuck on Rt. 128 and the state closed down for days? </p>
<p>Compared with that storm, this is nothing!</p>
<p>UNH also canceled classes. They have quite a few comuters and with the ice freezing rain mixing in I can see why. D was pretty happy. Finally snow.</p>
<p>I wasn’t in Boston at that time but I’ve heard it from a longtime Harvard person that the university prides itself in not cancelling classes for weather related reasons. This storm is indeed nothing compared to others I’ve experienced.</p>
<p>I was actually surprised when our MA community cancelled school for the day. Then, I went out about noon and it was an “itch”, as my DH likes to say. He is now outside trying to get his car unstuck and up the driveway. Gotta love it.</p>
<p>Oh - and my DD at BC is standing outside, in a line, waiting to get into Conte Forum for the BC-Duke basketball game. After all that, I hope the Dukies made it up for the game:)</p>
<p>Our area got pretty ugly during the day, but my S said Columbia did not close either. NYC schools pride themselves on never closing, I think.</p>
<p>Garland: Jerseyite is a compound discovered at AT&T Bell Labs, formed by compression in New Jersey dumps…even scientists are stumped as to exactly a) what it’s made of and b) what it’s good for.</p>
<p>KathieP, alas, I know people for whom “back East” begins at the Arizona border.</p>
<p>Somemom, “Cali” reminds me of a Columbian drug cartel. Oh…wait…it <em>is</em> the name of a Columbian drug cartel. The people who say “Cali” probably have a high correlation with those who, upon hearing I’m from California, ask about my surfboard.</p>
<p>Look, I didn’t invoke drug cartels on purpose, but you did Jersey dumps. </p>
<p>Pure mean-ness. Which does not at all fit your SoCal reputation.</p>
<p>My daughter is not really in the NE, but she said she is moving back to California. No ifs ands or buts. Hates the weather.</p>