Well, the first major snowstorm of the year has hit New England. Here in Newington we got about a foot. It started around 1 PM Friday, took a break on Saturday morning, and then started up again Sunday morning. I saw the sky for the first time around sunset yesterday (from the office window). Coming home from work last night there were a couple spots where I could actually see pavement. For an area that gets so much snow almost every year there are a couple things that still surprise me.
First off, is the panic that ensues any time there is a mention of a little snow. Yes, the roads are dangerous any time it snows, and it doesn't hurt to be prepared. But if you listened to the weather any time last week, the forecasters made it sound like we were going to be crawling out of our second-story windows. One of my journalism professors who was a Boston TV veteran would always joke that you can tell how bad the a storm was going to be by counting the references to the blizzard of '78. Someone up there has also come up with the french toast warning system (the "bread, milk, and egg run" habit is even mentioned in the wiki article. Is this an exclusively New England thing, or do other parts of the country do this when a storm is impending). Anyway, my point is, this is no '78, so why the panic? You think we would be used to this by now.
Also, for some reason, after like 80 years of having snowplows around, the city and state departments still haven't figured out how to use them apparently. On my (death defying) drive to work on Friday, I saw more plows just driving around than actually plowing, even though there was already a couple inches on the ground. One of the Herald reporters talked to the New Britain plow guys (*edit* article is here), and they were bragging about how they already put down some special de-icer and whatnot before the snow started, so it would be so much easier to plow. They were apparently over-confident in their ability to plow, because the roads were a grade-A mess even after they plowed (we didn't see the first plow go by until around 6, by the way). I'm hearing all kinds of complaints from friends from Bridgeport to Boston about the horrible job at snow cleanup. Get your act together, plows! You'd think this was a new experience the way you bumble around every year.
I, for one, actually get to enjoy the snow today by sitting in my warm house and not venturing out against my will (although I'll probably be going to Milford tonight). I raise my glass of hot cocoa to all of you who joined me in braving the weather over the weekend for work purposes.
P.S. Here is our hobo snowman:
1 comment:
Well, here we rarely get snow (although I got a "snow day" in December which was the first in three [or four] governors and that is a decade), here there is a run when hurricanes are predicted. Bread is a common theme, but water and filling the car with gas are the other two here. With Gustav in August, there were gas stations more than 200 miles away) which ran out of gas!
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