The White Stuff
Normally, I consider myself pretty independent and pragmatic about things over which I have no control. You know, like the weather. I knew it was coming, sure, but meteorologists have been wrong before. I was pretty sure it was coming, but even so there are certainly bigger problems in the world... but still!
After I went to bed Monday night, which was actually Tuesday morning's wee hours, our little Crossroads of America was blanketed with pretty wet, heavy snow. A manageable amount at first, but it just kept coming. It's an old joke of course, but if I think I am in for 8 - 10 inches at night, I rush to get to bed - that's all I'm saying. No classes Tuesday, our campus was completely closed. No work or school, so I worked on a few projects and just chilled out with the girls all day. By midday, Olive was unable to even squat when she went out, for fear of freezing her business off in the accumulating snow and ice. To my South, the ice was worse and people lost power from downed lines, to my North the snow was exponentially worse, but no ice. Where I am, there was snow and ice, in layers, until the wee hours of Wednesday morning.
Now I am completely unable to get my car out and onto the roads. I have shoveled and shoveled and it looks as if I haven't done much at all. The city has done a great job in clearing the main streets (unless you have to park on one of them), but they have not touched the side streets and stuck vehicles are everywhere. A good friend picked me up and brought me to work today, but we were both surprised to see city plows scraping the remaining 3 - 4 incles of slush on the sides of the main streets, rather than addressing the side streets for safe travel of school buses and well, taxpayers. I just keep reminding myself that I could live in upstate New York where they are dealing with roof collapses from the 7 - 8 FEET of snow they have. I could live (or have lived) in New Orleans, where the residents have been all but abandoned by their local, state and federal governments more than 18 months after Katrina. It's not so bad for me, see? I have power and heat and food and beer and coffee and my dog and my cat and art supplies. Not much to complain about. I just wish the temperature would climb for a few days to help everyone out.
