My friends, we are all going to die. Maybe not from this winter storm, but you wouldn't know that from the media outcry.

Forecasts for our general region promise anything from 12" to over 30", starting at 3:00 p.m. today and tapering off around the same time tomorrow, making this ONE OF THE BIGGEST STORMS IN RECORDED HISTORY!! These are the same weather forecasters, by the way, who said the same thing a couple months ago. We didn't die then, either.

There's nothing like a good disaster to make people happy. Face it, we all love to give orders that make us feel important, and the more dire our predictions the better. Get out and buy shovels! Stock up on food! Fill up your tank with gas! Don't drive! Don't even look outside if you don't want to be permanently blinded! Duct tape plastic to your windows and doors to keep out (and in) deadly gasses! Sorry, that last one was in the event of a terror attack. But do everything else! Because this storm COULD BE DEADLY…

Living can be pretty deadly, too, but do headlines scream that? I have made my point.

Still, it's all pretty good entertainment. Sitting around the dinner table last night I suggested we all put in our bets as to how much show we'll actually wind up getting. The answers, in order: shrug, shrug, shrug, shrug and 8". I'm betting on shrug.

My kids are praying to Mother Nature for a snow day tomorrow, parrotting the weather forecasters that if they have to go to school they're GOING TO DIE! So of course we don't love them if we make them go, assuming there is school. And, frankly, it's looking pretty good for them right now.

In order to maximize your entertainment, I've decided to try some time-lapse photography, to show you how much and how quickly the snow accumulates.

Here's our control photo. As you can see, we already have snow from previous storms:

The ruler's a little crooked, I know, but we'll call that 7" at 9:30 a.m.

The storm's not expected to hit 'til this afternoon, but I'll try to take another couple photos before then since it is already snowing lightly.

How exciting is this going to be!