Woke up Wednesday morning to snow.
It wasn't a surprise.
The news has been talking about it for days. All the weather forecasters said,
"Heaviest snow during the morning commute." Now, I know I've picked on the meteorologists
before, but this time they were actually correct.
I am a reasonably good driver in snow. Of course, it all depends on the vehicle. Currently I drive an AWD car. If you've ever owned a 4WD vehicle, you know
AWD doesn't mean shit. But I recently
put new tires on the car, so it handles pretty well in adverse conditions.
My street hadn't been plowed, of course. My street only gets plowed when there's
church, meaning Saturday nights and Sundays, because the town thinks the road
in front of my house is an extension of the church's giant parking lot. Nobody actually uses the church's giant
parking lot - they use my street because it provides an easier get-away to
those who only pretend to go to church.
But I digress. It was
snowing.
Once I managed to get out of my driveway and up the crest of
the hill, I worked my way to the main road.
Surely since there was school in town, the main road must be plowed.
(Insert maniacal laughter here.)
Nothing had been plowed.
Not the main streets, not the back streets, not the street leading up to
the school, and not the parking lot. I
witnessed three cars stuck in the snowy shoulders, and I eventually saw one
sanding truck driving the other way (as if putting sand on 2+ inches of heavy, wet,
slippery snow while it was still snowing to beat the band was going to
help). Numerous school employees had
accidents or simply couldn't make it to work on time despite having left
extremely early. Even the buses
struggled to arrive, some as much as an hour late.
You know what the DPW said?
"We didn’t know it was going to be this bad."
Really? You don't
watch the news? You don't look out the
window? You don't see the snow on the
ground while driving your little sand truck around town?
Didn't know. Meaning:
Did not understand that "heaviest snow during the morning commute"
might be a clue of some kind that, oh, gee, I don't know, maybe the heaviest
snow might seriously be happening during the morning commute.
It's not rocket science, kids. Or, shit, maybe it is.
