Vent: Did someone say SNOW??

[Jill of Beans]

Ahhhh!!! I am about to pull out my hair :hair:

All morning long - all I keep hearing about is the snow....did someone say snow??? C'mon people, suck it up and get OVER it.

I work in a LTC pharmacy and we provide medications to people in nursing homes & assisted living facilities. The management is freaking out - because of - <gasp> SNOW! What are we going to do? How will we manage? IN reality NOAA is forecasting 16-24 inches for my immediate area - so maybe management SHOULD have a plan, but c'mon...

They've even gone as far as to make arrangements with the hotel down the street - and for $99/night - people can SLEEP at the hotel - so they can make it into work the next morning! My own manager - has made arrangements for her son & daughter in law to stay at her house for the weekend - to take care of her animals - just so she can stay here at work....are you kidding me?

Enough of this people - don't you all know - we've got a railroad in the works for this weekend and chinnies to move!!! C'mon...I'll be driving DC through MD and into DE....geesh!

Sorry for the rant...I'm so frustrated....ahhhhh!!!

 

[Sesame]

Sending best wishes and safe travel for the RR. Everyone seems to be quite worried about this upcoming storm.

 

[Sasha]

If we can survive it 8 months of the year, y'all will be fine! It's always interesting to me to see the different reactions since it's second nature up here. That being saidwe'd act te same way if it got insanely hot or rained like crazy. Good luck with the snow! If you're traveling in it make sure you have a survival kit, it sure comes in handy. We keep candles and matches but it gets crazy cold here on top of all the snow.

 

[Ash]

Lol Jill. If it's more than 1-2" everyone panics. You should know that.

 

[jags]

Being that I live in an area where what you have coming happens here on a normal basis I just do not understand the panic. When we get a storm like that most times nothing closes and people go on with there lives just knowing you will not get to where you want to go as fast but you will get there. By the way thanks for keeping these storms down south as we hardly have any snow so far this year.

 

[Parkerspetchins]

I can understand the panic, people don't know how to drive in the snow there because they rarely have to do it! The state agencies don't have all of the equipment necessary to deal with the snow quickly because they rarely have to use it so it takes a long time to get the roads safe again. I would be afraid to drive in the snow there too for fear of other drivers on the road LOL.

 

[threewingedfury]

There are SO many wrecks down here when we get bad weather. The state does a piss poor job of salting the roads and scraping them when it needs to be done. My town has had the entire week off from school because our roads haven't been cleared properly. Not to mention that since there has been budget cuts, most cities don't have the funds to work on the roads.

 

[jags]

A lot of our roads never see salt here. They are snow covered and icy for about 5 months of the year. People must just learn to equip their cars with good tires and drive according to conditions.

 

[3CsMommy]

I've always lived in the US Snow Belt, so I get quite a kick out of people from the DC area and further south who hear "3-5 inches over night" and promptly buy out every gallon of milk and loaf of bread in the stores. If you slow down, keep a proper following distance, and remain calm, snow is not nearly as difficult to drive in as people think. Oh, and if they'd get the heck out of the way for a plow every now and then, the roads wouldn't ice up as badly in the first place. That's just beaten into us like "10 and 2" and "sirens and lights, pull to the right" in driver's ed classes up here, so it seems odd that people *don't* know the precautions.

 

[Chub_Chub]

Haha! SNOW! What's that? J/K That is a lot more snow than MD gets normally. I remember one time being stuck at the BWI because of a similar amount of snow that came in and shut everything down. I also know that the road maintenance out there was EXCELLENT and the roads were always plowed and salted before I even left for work in the mornings. People love to overreact.

 

[Lmbswimmer]

Actually snowy roads with proper tires are awesome to drive on in comparison to icy roads. Give me a snowy dirt road any day over a calcium covered salted rd! At least on snow you have traction, unless you have chains or studded tires no one is going anywhere on ice.

When we lived in RI for 4 years it was comical during snow storms. We had snow tires on our cars, and well, it was entertaining to go out on the roads and drive. I also got a kick out of what they used for plow trucks.

I can understand the reluctance of S. states to spend the money on the equipment - it is really expensive, and at the town level you are looking at jacking property taxes quite a bit to buy/maintain/insure that equipment oh and have someone trained in driving it.

 

[3CsMommy]

I can understand the reluctance of S. states to spend the money on the equipment - it is really expensive, and at the town level you are looking at jacking property taxes quite a bit to buy/maintain/insure that equipment oh and have someone trained in driving it.

Several years ago, Ohio auctioned off some of our (at the time) surplus snow gear to help pay off some debt or another. Apparently, states auctioning equipment is a fairly common thing, so it seems like MD, VA, etc. could buy used equipment from other states and still get plenty of use out of it (since the machinery wouldn't be in constant use) for their few freak "OMG, the snow's up to my ankles! We're going to turn into the Donner Party!" storms.

 

[mishellyshel]

They are already salting the roads in my neighborhood in NJ. They use that liquid brine stuff. *yuk*

People can not drive in the snow. period. I personally don't mind the snow but like LMB above said............it is the ICE. And since my leg of the travel is the last I will likely be traveling at night, which is cause for concern of icy roads.

These chins have been thru so much, I would hate for some idiot who cant drive, hit a patch of black ice and ram into me with these babies in my car (which is all wheel drive and has new tires).

 

[Jill of Beans]

And since my leg of the travel is the last I will likely be traveling at night, which is cause for concern of icy roads.

These chins have been thru so much, I would hate for some idiot who cant drive, hit a patch of black ice and ram into me with these babies in my car (which is all wheel drive and has new tires).

I share your concern Michelle, I honestly do. Sadly folks around here (MD- Baltimore/DC area) are NOT used to the snow and ice. Plust for our area they are saying a minimum of 16 inches - closer to 30...just great!

I have all wheel drive also - and am not sure how DE roads will be - the last part of the drive to meeting you in Dover - are side road - not highways - and I just don't know....Have cell phones - and am packing emergency supplies just in case: blankets, water and snacks...and also a bucket for the kids - just in case - and we're hoping to see you this weekend.

 

[threewingedfury]

Well - I think they're calling for 2-3" down here - so the chins will at least be in VA on Sunday, as I should have no problem traveling unless we end up with ice instead.

 

[Dolyphinm]

I had to buy the boyfriend some nyquil as we have none and he is sick as heck. I didn't think about the trip to walmart. Good lord are people crazy with buying things. Everyone Around me on check out had pet supplies of some form. Everyone just plans to have their pets food run out during the storm? it might be a total of a day and a half of not having the best roads probably yet we must panic.

 

[mishellyshel]

i always laugh because everyone is buying bread, eggs, & milk. What.........is everyone making french toast during a snow storm!!!

i refuse to go to any store tomorrow. people are insane. i am sure i can survive. after all that is the fun of getting trapped in the house......making do with what you have and coming up with interesting meals.

personally i LOVE being snowed in. i just wish it wasnt on a "chin rescue" weekend.

 

[alpayton]

i always laugh because everyone is buying bread, eggs, & milk. What.........is everyone making french toast during a snow storm!!!

i refuse to go to any store tomorrow. people are insane. i am sure i can survive. after all that is the fun of getting trapped in the house......making do with what you have and coming up with interesting meals.

personally i LOVE being snowed in. i just wish it wasnt on a "chin rescue" weekend.

:laughitup: Apparently they ARE making french toast, cuz it just so happens that I ran out of milk AND bread the day before the 5-6" of snow we got on Friday... Well...of course, having a kiddo who just LOVES to have milk for me to make his hot cocoa and for his cereal, I figured I'd be the devil if I didn't have it. Oh boy was that ever a mistake - going to the grocery and expecting not to have to claw my way to the fridges to get to the milk?! I mean lord have mercy, think just buying a dairy cow and putting it in the back yard would have been easier. Sheesh...

We're not supposed to get anything but rain out of THIS system, but the one that's supposed to be coming on Tuesday-ish is supposed to be like the system on Friday (LOTS of snow). The 5-6" that we got on Friday, was more snow than my son's EVER seen at once...and he'll be 10 in March. So yeah, we don't get that kind of snow down here that much...so when we do, people go freakin' nuts!

 

[Laurie]

Years ago when I was foolishly married we left the cool comfort of Wisconsin and drove down to San Antonio, Tx where I would reside for 6 years. Well being a good new bride I drove for some of the way and was positive I had made a mistake when I encountered snow. I woke my husband (at the time) to have him check things out and sure enough I wasn't going the wrong way and it was indeed snowing in Texas! So much snow in fact (laughable though really) we couldn't move into our apartment complex because they couldn't get their to let us in. I was like, 'lady I drove all the way from Wisconsin and you can't manage a couple inches of snow?' Um no they couldn't. The city was virtually paralyzed with fear. I think they might have had like 8 inches, but everything was closed. All the bases were closed--we had to stay with friends of my ex's for a few days until the snow had either melted or was somehow scraped up off the roads. I can not tell you how funny it was, seriously. Kids were using cardboard boxes to slide down the hills. You have never seen a sorry site of snowmen in your life as no one knew how to make them. And funniest of all were all the cop cars you say in the ditch!

And there wasn't a Kroger around with milk, bread, water or toilet paper.

All I could think was, Welcome to Texas ya'll! LOL!

 

[Lmbswimmer]

Buying state equipment off of auction that used to be the bigger stuff probably isn't worth buying - it made it to auction somehow which means no one at the local level wanted it. Therefore, it most likely needs some serious repairs, then the transportation, and the person to drive it. Again, not anyone can drive a plow truck. Also, ice is well, just that ice, it doesn't matter how many plow trucks you have - ice sucks. It needs SAND, and depending on the temp salt. That Calcium spray crap should be outlawed in my opinion - does more damage to cars and roads than helps anything. If it is too cold salt doesn't do anything against the ice, you need to sand the crap out of it, make paved roads into dirt roads and people need to slow down. But DEP also has an issue with this method because the salt and sand runoff kills fish and other critters for our comfort of getting down the road. Depending on the state that may play into some of their actions. Definitely money does! It is expensive to clear snow and ice.

All states auction equipment, in Maine, public buying day of small stuff is Feb. 12th. Last year I picked up an oak dresser with dovetailed drawers for $25!! It needed some work, and was missing the knobs, but they were closing down one of the pysch wards, so all the furniture went up for sale. All CRT monitors are .01$.