Not ready for my closeup

Several years ago, I had written a feature story suggesting that, despite our latitude, Spokane residents didn’t tend to be the hardiest of souls when it came to coping with winter.

I blamed Chicken Little TV news, among other things.

OK, I admit it. Driving on icy roads is no fun. And the thought of slipping on sidewalks sends some people to Arizona after Thanksgiving.

But there are things you can do to make winter endurable — tactics a lot of people here inexplicably ignore.

So anyway, this feature story was set to run on the upcoming Sunday. And it was decided that we would produce a short video to go with it. A guy here at the paper named Joe was going to handle the camera.

On the morning we were to do this, I lugged in an oversized travel bag stuffed with winter weather gear.

My idea for the video was to start out in just long underwear and then get dressed on camera while saying things like “This is called a hat” or “These are known as sensible shoes.”

And so on. You know. “This is an item of apparel called a warm coat. It can be purchased in stores.” Et cetera.

I’m not sure how great the video would have been. But I never found out.

The night before we were going to record it, Joe’s girlfriend lost her job. I came in to the office and found an email from him saying he needed to take the day off to be with her.

Oh, well. There’s always another cold season. And I’m usually up for one more winter-wimps rant.

Maybe when it comes time to reach into the closet in search of warm gloves I’ll haul out that idea for the video, too.