A 'Doctor Who' scarf sort of day

A 'Doctor Who' scarf sort of day

By George Barnes TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF
george.barnes@telegram.com

By now many of you are probably in UMass Memorial Medical Center being treated for injuries suffered shopping on Black Friday, and I may have had several toes frozen off running in the Gardner to Templeton Turkey Trot, but I am writing this column Wednesday and that is all speculation.

My focus is not on crazy shopping or frozen road races, but on the first truly tweet-worthy snow of the winter.

There has been a little snow this winter, but not much. A storm slated to start Wednesday was expected to be very plowable. It was projected to be a "Doctor Who" scarf-level blizzard.

"Doctor Who", for those not familiar with the doctor, is a British Broadcasting Corp. television show about a time lord who flies back and forth in time in a blue British telephone booth, wearing a long scarf and often accompanied by a comely companion. The doctor's purpose, it seems, is to save the world from amusing bad guys, including statues of angels and cheesy looking robotic creatures called Daleks.


By the way, a television, for young people who live stream all their shows on their computers or other electronic devices, is a magical box that only provides entertaining shows and no Tumblr access. At one time the shows were beamed into the house by electronic rays sent from Boston or Hartford, Connecticut. Now they come through an extra utility line.

Anyway, I spent the night before the storm digging out my long and warm "Doctor Who" scarf and preparing for bad weather as I always do, filling a bag with three pairs of gloves, a couple of hats, and a face mask just in case I get lost and end up in Minnesota. I like to be prepared. I have a shovel in my car and a couple of blankets just in case my car breaks down on a major highway and is buried by five feet of snow.

Knowing a snowstorm was coming, our household did its panic buying on Monday well ahead of the normal storm-related shopping madness. Panic buying is fun on some levels, but panic buying the day before Thanksgiving in a snowstorm is downright dangerous.

So we laid in stocks of food for the long winter and I filled my car with provisions I needed to drive to Worcester. The provisions included, of course, fruit and nut bars, but also apples, water, and chocolate-covered pretzels.

The pretzels are especially important because they will keep your energy levels up after your car dies and no one rescues you for days.

From most parts of Central Massachusetts you can walk to a house or business to get help. You do not need help from rescue teams with St. Bernard dogs, unless you break down in Royalston or parts of Hardwick. In those cases, the pretzels will save you.

I mentioned that I planned to run in the Turkey Trot race. In past years, the race has been cold, but the roads clear. Ahead of Thursday, I am still not sure if I should put cleats on my sneakers or carry a shovel with me. The race is being run this year for the first time by the G-Vegas Striders. Personally, I had some Harpoon Grateful Harvest cranberry ale at home I thought I might get into early if the race was not held, but I was still expecting to run a long, cold five miles.

The problem with running is runners are not wimps. They will run races in the worst weather if they are pretty sure no one will get killed. I've run races in all conditions, but snow-covered roads add another dangerous wrinkle. The G-Vegas Striders are considering whether to hold the race.

The same is not true of Black Friday. Bad weather or not, the stores will open on Friday and the shoppers will have to tough it out. But by now I am over all of that. I know whether the race was held and the Black Friday craziness. I am probably now relaxing, drinking my Saturday morning coffee and reading my Telegram & Gazette.

George Barnes at george.barnes@telegram.com. Follow him on Twitter @georgebarnesTG