Slip Slidin' Away
late afternoon
19 January 2005
Surprise! We just got two inches of snow!
It just took me an hour to get home from my place of employment1. On the way, I managed to lose a wheelcover by sliding into the roadside curb.
I still have to drive to Garner and back to get Isabella from the babysitter. Wish me luck.
To those of you yankees who love to snort with derision at us Southerners whenever we get our panties in a bunch over such a paltry amount of snow, consider this:
- We don’t get snow as often as you do.
- People down here don’t know how to drive in ice and snow.
- But mainly, we don’t have the infrastructure (plows, salt trucks) that you have.
You see, I have driven in snow while visiting my in-laws in Western NY. You would think it would be Hell. However, all of the roads are plowed and salted within a few hours of the first flake’s fall. After a few hours of plowing, most of the roads are completely clear. Down here, many roads become (and remain) skating rinks for a day or more.
In sum: yankees, you can kiss my grits.
1 Distance from my house to work: 4 ¼ miles. I could have walked home faster.
LATE UPDATE: Yes, we made it home fine.
Comments
Smerp!
19 January, 10:32 PM
Like I said, we’re retarded, but I blame this mainly on lack of experience.
Speaking of sand…
“You ate what?”
“We ate sand.”
“You ate sand?”
“We ate sand.”
— from Raising Arizona
(What’s funny is that I knew this post would summon you.)
cramer
20 January, 01:28 AM
People down here don’t know how to drive – PERIOD. Rain, snow, ice… whatever, if it ain’t dry, people wreck. IDIOTS. And the NCDOT does have the equipment. They just don’t use it. And the morons in Raleigh really are morons. My dad, a DOT mechanic in Cleveland Co. for 30 years (retired now), was pissed to see snow plows in the ditch because they didn’t put the chains on them. Dammit, every molecule of equipment the DOT owns comes out of Raleigh.
Here in Shelby, the DOT has no trouble clearing the roads or salting the road as soon as snow and ice begins to land. And they can don the plows in just a few hours. The blades are always kept ready to go (i.e. with an edge) hanging in the truck stalls. Granted, there are far fewer roads and people tend to stay off the roads. I think I’ll stay here for a few more days grin
PS: every DOT truck I’ve seen has snow chains behind the driver’s seat. Eveny my dad’s pickup had chains.
vsp
20 January, 08:29 AM
People down here don’t know how to drive – PERIOD.
People up here don’t know how to drive, either. They’re just better at flailing away in less-than-perfect conditions than you southern folk, as they get more practice.
(What’s funny is that I knew this post would summon you.)
Heh. Predictability is an art form.
vsp
19 January, 08:53 PM
As a card-carrying snorting yankee, I concur.
My first winter in Raleigh was in 1989. Coincidentally, this was the winter that brought a massive ice storm to North Carolina, which shut the whole damn town of Raleigh down in no uncertain terms.
I went to go through the Free Expression Tunnel… and as soon as I hit the stairs, WHOOOOOOOOAA! Where the hell did my footing go? Thankfully, I was close to the guardrail and grabbed it, straining my shoulder but sparing myself broken teeth, neck and/or limbs.
I took a closer look. The campus drones hadn’t put salt or ice-melt chemicals on the ice… they’d put SAND.
As in, “small, loose grains of sand on a slippery surface.” Why not put out tiny ball bearings coated with KY Jelly, too?
Bloody hell.