Not Exactly A "I Shouldn't Be Alive" Episode

Geezus, talk about SOFT! This yenta was stranded for all of.... 12 hours!

On the Long Island Expressway.

In. Her. Car.

With that coat, and gloves.

Luckily, she summoned enough hand strength to write her kids lengthy "goodbye" letters. 

Oiy. Just lahk a woman.....

FARMINGVILLE, N.Y. (AP) — Stranded for hours on a snow-covered road, Priscilla Arena prayed, took out a sheet of loose-leaf paper and wrote what she thought might be her last words to her husband and children. 

She told her 9 1/2-year-old daughter, Sophia, she was "picture-perfect beautiful." And she advised her 5 ½-year-old son, John: "Remember all the things that mommy taught you. Never say you hate someone you love. Take pride in the things you do, especially your family. ... Don't get angry at the small things; it's a waste of precious time and energy. Realize that all people are different, but most people are good. " 

"My love will never die — remember, always," she added. 

Arena, who was rescued in an Army canvas truck after about 12 hours, was one of hundreds of drivers who spent a fearful, chilly night stuck on highways in a blizzard that plastered New York's Long Island with more than 30 inches of snow, its ferocity taking many by surprise despite warnings to stay off the roads. 

But many workers didn't have the option of taking off early Friday, Arena noted. The 41-year-old sales account manager headed home from an optical supply business in Ronkonkoma around 4 p.m. She soon found her SUV stuck along a road in nearby Farmingville. 

"Even though we would dig ourselves out and push forward, the snow kept piling, and therefore we all got stuck, all of us," she recalled later at Brookhaven Town Hall, where several dozen stranded motorists were taken after being rescued. Many others opted to stay with their cars. 

Once again, idiot people not taking storm warning seriously. And don't say she "couldn't" take off early Friday. Just fucking leave. If the company fires you for that... then you don't want to work with them. That said, not much of a "harrowing" tale. I mean, can't your car idle with half a tank for almost 12 hours anyway?

I got this email from Mike Johnson... sounds like..... uh... "fun."

Yes, the general population is soft.

I'm not here to prove anything or say how tough I am, but here is what I CHOSE to do a couple weekends ago:

- Leave my warm home after work in Milwaukee and drive 5 hrs north to Munising, MI, on the shore of Lake Superior.

- Upon arriving at about 1:30 AM local time, grabbed my backpack and head into the woods to meet up with some friends and set up camp. (yes, camp).

- Wake up, put on some gear, get over to a vertical wall of ice, and do this. (The video from a GoPro on my helmet, involving a lot of Smash, Smash, SUMM-ASH!)

- Go back to camp, sleep another night.

- Climb again, then drive 5 hrs home and catch the last part of the Super Bowl (wasn't real important to me this year due to Packer induced heartbreak).

The closest National Weather Service station in Marquette, MI lists the low temps for the two nights I was out as -6° F and -11° F.

My friends and I even had a good time out there. We sat around a fire and drank beer and whisky.

I did not write any letters. I did not write because there was no reason to think I'd die, even SLEEPING IN A TENT AT 11 DEGREES BELOW ZERO! By choice.

With my pack on my back, I actually walked past a hotel to get to my campsite, just to save $89 / night. Sure, I'd have preferred to sleep in a bed in a heated room, but at no point was I near death, or even very cold. 

 
I know most people don't make that choice, but my goodness folks, the human body is able to sustain life well beyond conditions that most of us will ever experience.