Columbus is a Winter Wonderland
On his first broadcast of the new year, Mike shows off downtown Columbus, following the city's fresh snowfall, appreciating the quiet streets free of "amateur" drivers kept at bay by last night’s winter storm, and embracing the increasingly rare sight of real snow.
This walk along Broad Street includes a glimpse of the nativity scene of St. Joseph Catholic Church and the Ohio Statehouse.
Good morning! This is Mike George, coming at you live from downtown Columbus, Ohio, on this snowy Monday, January 6, 2025. This is my first broadcast of the new year, so welcome, everyone, to 2025 AD in the same version of the universe you've grown to know me in through other broadcasts.
On this beautiful winter day, I wanted to take the opportunity to show off our lovely city, freshly dusted after last night's snowfall. This is the best part of winter! The temperature is a bit chilly, probably hovering around -5° (21°F). I just love the snow, especially right when it falls — before all the dogs have pooped in it and before all the kids have peed in it. This is that fresh, white powder that all the coloring books and Christmas stories promised us would come in wintertime.
Another thing I love about these winter storms is that they keep all the amateurs off the road. The only ones foolish or rash enough to brave the elements - besides me, of course - are usually the so-called "essential workers," as opposed to us "non-essential" workers who don't really need to work but do so, because AI hasn't become sophisticated enough to replace us yet.
A shout-out to the wonderful men and women at COTA for keeping the buses on time, or at least as on time as they can be given the road conditions. If there's ever a service you truly appreciate on days like this, it's definitely the COTA bus, even for those who have cars. Let's not forget the pain in the neck of having to unbury and defrost your car, like that poor gentleman who had to unbury his car from a mountain of snow. It's things like that which make me not miss having my dear old Mazda. God love her, but He would've loved her more if she had a temperature-controlled, climate-controlled parking garage. I really need to work on getting a climate-controlled parking garage for myself, especially after last time's encounter with "Parking Garage Karen," which you might remember from the last episode.
Winter Walk Downtown
I'm just walking down Broad Street westbound towards the center of town. You can still see some of the churches adorned with their old Christmas decorations, including this wonderful little nativity scene in front of St. Joseph Catholic Church. Look at this new high-rise going up here — our next "IKEA" building to adorn downtown Columbus.
I just love days like this, especially when I'm properly attired in my winter wear. I'm relatively well bundled up, with the exception of my ears. I had to take off my earmuffs so that my headphones wouldn't catch any interference for this audio recording - a small sacrifice I had to make for this recording.
Days like this make me thankful to live in Ohio, where we actually get snow, not some wintry mix. This is real snow — fresh, clean, powdery snow, the way the Lord intended it!
Enjoying the Quiet
Wherever you're watching from, you're hopefully nice and cozy, enjoying this fine weather. Perhaps if you're lucky, you have the day off work and are out playing in the snow. The streets are so quiet; all the amateurs are off the road. I think technically, we're in a level-2 snow emergency, though this doesn't seem like much of an emergency to me. They just need to clear off the roads a little bit, and we'll be back to business. This sort of weather was routine in Montreal when I lived up there. Come on, Ohio, we can do this! This is just another day in winter.
In the year 2025, with as much baking of our atmosphere as we've done over the last century or so, we should be thankful that we even have things like snow. I was sort of fearful that we might actually get through an entire winter without ever seeing any snow, and that I might have to explain to my kids someday the concept of snow, lest they might never encounter this beautiful phenomenon known as frozen precipitation — the pleasant kind, that is.
With the streets notably quieter than usual, I'm probably the loudest thing here on this block, with the exception of maybe some of the snow removal machinery that periodically passes through to clean our fine streets and sidewalks. It makes me happy when the sidewalks are actually cleared of snow. That's one thing we're not great at in the United States: clearing off sidewalks. But at least here, we're lucky to find folks at Chase (or whatever this building is that Chase is in) have staff who do that. And to be fair, most office complexes and apartment complexes do fortunately have staff who do that. But I guess I was kind of spoiled living in Montreal, where the city is responsible for clearing off the sidewalks. It's one little nuance between a lot of American cities and some of the nice things about Montreal that I got to enjoy while I was up there.
Stay Cozy
Oh, and there's a nice view of the Ohio Statehouse, the seat of the State of Ohio's government. And then we have over here, the Columbus Dispatch, our fine city newspaper. In front of that, we have the Trinity Episcopal Church, one of the wonderful organizations that is generous enough to offer free lunches and free food to those who are unhoused.
Anyway, my hands are freezing, so I think I've successfully shown you guys enough of downtown Columbus on this fine wintry day to conclude this episode and put on some hand warmers. I'll leave you guys here with this beautiful view of the Ohio State House.
I hope you get to enjoy the day, whether you're off work or having to brave the elements to do some essential job, perhaps clearing off the snow and helping your community cope with some of this weather.
I'll go ahead and sign off here. This has been Mike George, coming at you live from Columbus, Ohio. Keep each other cozy until we meet again.
