Snowed In on Long Island

I have mixed feelings about Governor Andrew Cuomo's Executive Order banning ALL travel by non-emergency personnel on roads in selected New York counties, including my own on Long Island.  On one hand, it does smack of prudence and intelligence, and it certainly is good advice to stay off the roads if you don't have to be on them during this current blizzard, which has credibly threatened to get worse in the coming hours.  And by not being on the roads, you are one less stranded motorist the emergency personnel will have to rescue or recover.

And quite frankly, it is the excuse I need to not go in to teach tomorrow (though my college is also closed anyway).

On the other hand, it does have more than a minor component of nannyism.  I have been on Long Island for 20-something years, but before moving here, I had lived in an area where the type of snowfall we are going to get over the next 24 hours is hardly unheard of.  The population of Long Island, and the governmental authorities here, don't know how to deal with any snowfall in excess of 6 inches.  And because they depend upon Nanny for so many things, it makes them susceptible to despotic control.

I have some paperwork to do, so we'll keep ourselves entertained.  If we really get bored, we can always read some Robert Service poems aloud to one another.  My wife, as a hospital physician, is technically an emergency person; whether she is actually called in to the hospital is not a sure thing at this point.  And if my hip pain subsides, I might take a walk out in it all.

But never mind us; my Yooper cousins are, no doubt, laughing with derision at Andy Cuomo as he leads the struggle against what amounts to an ordinary breath of fresh air for them.