The "S" Word

So it happened last night.....

The dreaded "S' word. Snow.

I grew up in a part of the country where snow really isn't that big of a deal. In Western Pennsylvania it snows quite frequently during the winter. It's not an every day occurance, but it does happen several times a winter and, when it does, it can be several inches at a time. So people are used to it. And kids go to school while it is fresh on the ground.

Snow is an awesome thing under the right circumstances. And it's magical when you're a child.

I clearly remember many times in elementary school when there was snow on the ground and we were at school. One year, we had a snow sculpting contest in lieu of several hours of class. Some friends and I piled snow together and carved out a sports car. We lost.

There was a rather large hill overlooking the neighbrohood where I lived in Pennsylvania. After a good snowfall, you could often find my friends and I barreling through trees on our sleds and racing down the hill. We would build snow forts in our front yards and throw snowball across the street at each other.

Okay, so that's my memory lane trip for the day.

Now as an adult, I still find snow pretty awesome. We were watching some neighbors' kids this morning taking advantage of the snow day to build a snowman and have some snowball fights. We even took our cats outside and let them walk around in the snow. They didn't like that too much and went right back inside.

But as much as I love snow, it's a pain in the ass -- well, it's a pain in the ass when it snows in the south.

If you have never been down south when there is a prediction of snow, you wouldn't believe this. You may have heard stories. If you're a transplanted Yankee you most certainly were amazed at this when you first saw it happen. And if you're a typical southerner, you may be guilty of this --- but when there is a even a prediction of snow around here, the first thing people do is go raid the groceries stores and buy all the milk and bread and all the schools are immediately cancelled for the next day.

I went to our local Bloom grocery store about 8 pm to pick up some odds and end last night -- not emergency rations by any means. But I laughed when I saw there were only three gallons of milk left -- all skm -- and four loaves of bread.

Seriously, people -- do you really think that you're going to be stuck at home for days on end just because of a inch of two of snow, even if it does fall? Come on. The average family of three or four can consume a gallon of milk within 3 days. That same average family can probably go through a loaf of bread in 3-4 days. If you're at home that long during the snow, it's more than likely because you're too scared to go out.

Granted since this area does not get snow or ice that often, it's not as experienced in preparing the roads, clearing the roads, or driving on them. But the crews around here do a pretty darn good job. Even with 2-3 inches on the ground, most of the roads around here have been drivable all day long.

The drivers on the other hand are a little crazy. Most people around here are scared of driving on snow or ice and tend to stay home, which is good because if you don't know how to drive on it, you shouldn't. But there are some that don't even know how to drive when the roads are dry that go out and make things dangerous for everyone else by driving on the snow/ice.

Either leave the driving on ice and snow to the people that know how to do it correctly, or take some time when it does snow/ice to go somewhere where you can practice driving on it. Do that as much as you can. That way you can build up that skill for the next time this happens.

Still, snow around here is pretty cool. It got me out of work today. Although I had the standard 5:30 am call to tell me to let the news media know our college was going to be closed today. So in the predawn hours I was on the phone and on the internet updating our website to reflect that, and letting out local TV stations know. Fun way to start off the morning, but at least I got to sleep in afterwards.