"Dear Residents: There is a Winter Storm Advisory for Memphis beginning the evening of Friday, February 17 and lasting possibly until Monday. The temperature will drop below freezing. Please take necessary precautions to prepare for this event. Please remember to keep your hot and cold water on a slow drip and keep your cabinets open. Thank you for your participation in this manner. -- The Management Team"
This is the content of signs posted around my apartment community. I saw this one near the mailboxes. The south is interesting when it comes to dealing with the few and miniscule instances of winter.
First of all, in all of the notifications I have seen – including emails to employees and signs like the one above – the winter related weather is given specific titles, like “Winter Storm Advisory” or “Winter Weather Event” much like we would refer to events such as the Olympic Games or Easter or the NCAA Championships. There is a tendency to either capitalize the first letter of each word and/or put the event in quotes – clearly, this is an indication of the importance of these rare instances.
Second of all, Memphians’ means for dealing with winter weather sometimes seems bizarre to me. You can see my blog posting from last Friday regarding the “big” snow storm for some examples. But if that’s not enough, here is another.
Let’s refer to the sign above.
Now, I can 100% understand why it may be necessary to keep one’s faucets on a slow drip – we wouldn’t want the pipes to freeze and this allows for some continual water flow.
But the cabinets? I just don’t get it. I can totally understand if I am missing the point here, and someone can feel free to enlighten me. But it just seems a little weird.
What cabinets? And why?
A very wise friend and I seem to agree that the cabinets below one’s sinks seem to make sense – if the pipes do freeze and there is a problem, keeping these cabinets open would let us see those issues first, assuming the pipes burst in these locations.
But is it only these cabinets? I can’t seem to understand why it would be any of the other ones.
All of this speculation, however, raises another question: If these two practices – the water drip and the cabinet opening – are indeed necessary, why don’t we participate in such practices in such states like PA ?? I never remember my parents doing such things during the many blizzards we’ve lived through. So what is it about the south that makes these practices necessary?
Clearly, this cabinet conundrum is one for the sages (not to be confused with the sage in the spice rack in my cabinet).
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1 comment:
Hey Carol. Love the blog. I just wanted to respond to your wander of the cabinets. Knowing that I have lived in the DIRTY south as well, we too were asked by our apartment management to do the same things, keep the cabinets open and the water on a drip. The reason for the cabinets is this: Northern houses are typically built with the water pipes inside the insulation. Southern houses are typically built with the pipes behind the cabinets, but not covered by any insulation. Thus, this makes the pipes more prone to freezing. Leaving them open allows any warm air to circulate around the cabinets, making them less prone to burst. Well, i've been enjoying your blogs, as your constant hilarious criticisms have always been a favorite attribute of mine. Hope this answers your questions. Miss ya,
Kelly
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