Bah. HUMBUG.
Dec. 5th, 2003 11:18 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
corilannamI wish I could love snow.
I love the idea of snow -- fluffy snow flakes you can catch on your tongue, giant snowmen, dashing through the snow in a one-horse open sleigh. All the usual romanticized nonsense. This is because I grew up where there was no snow. When I moved east and discovered the cold, slippery, insidiously icy reality, I was not amused. It does not taste like powdered sugar, it only crunches pleasingly beneath your boots for the first five minutes after it falls (after which you're taking your life in your hands, or else it's covered in dog piss), and making snowballs with sufficient layers of finger protection is much more awkward than it looks in the movies.
What I hate the most is how stupid it makes people around here. The City of Gaithersburg operates under a continual policy of "d'oh!" when it comes to bad weather. No matter how much warning we've had -- surely that doesn't mean us, right? So this morning my street was only minimally plowed with no dirt or salt laid down, and I stood in ankle-deep snow on our unshoveled sidewalk waiting for an overcrowded bus that was 45 minutes late because it kept getting stuck on the minimally-plowed, unsalted hills.
Two bus stops down, of course, it got stuck again. "We're not going anywhere until a tow truck comes," the driver said, opening the door after ten minutes of trying to wiggle the bus up the hill. "So if you want to get off, go ahead. But I'm not stopping to let you back on again."
Amazingly, a flock of people skittered off the bus and went out to stand in the snow again. A little while later, someone spotted the next scheduled bus coming up behind us, and another bunch of people scampered off, even though there was no way the second bus could get around the first bus. So they ended up standing in the snow, too. It worked out for me, since I got to sit down and get through another sixty pages of Post Captain while the two bus drivers flagged down a dirt truck. With the bus now about an hour late, we finally got going again, and our driver was true to his word -- we went right past the poor dodos standing in the snow piles and kept on going, afraid that if we stopped, we'd end up stuck again. The Metro station was a slip-and-slide event, and my transfer bus was running on schedule, which meant I had missed it by three minutes and had to wait half an hour (in the still-falling snow) for the next one. Then, when I finally got off the bus in front of my office building, I splashed down right into an ankle-deep puddle of ice water. Thankfully, it's casual Friday, which means I get only slightly odd looks while walking barefoot around the office, waiting for my shoes and socks to dry out.
So. I try to be cheery and holly-jolly and all gung-ho about the first snow of the season. I'm just not very good at it. My icon will have to be jolly enough for both of us.
I love the idea of snow -- fluffy snow flakes you can catch on your tongue, giant snowmen, dashing through the snow in a one-horse open sleigh. All the usual romanticized nonsense. This is because I grew up where there was no snow. When I moved east and discovered the cold, slippery, insidiously icy reality, I was not amused. It does not taste like powdered sugar, it only crunches pleasingly beneath your boots for the first five minutes after it falls (after which you're taking your life in your hands, or else it's covered in dog piss), and making snowballs with sufficient layers of finger protection is much more awkward than it looks in the movies.
What I hate the most is how stupid it makes people around here. The City of Gaithersburg operates under a continual policy of "d'oh!" when it comes to bad weather. No matter how much warning we've had -- surely that doesn't mean us, right? So this morning my street was only minimally plowed with no dirt or salt laid down, and I stood in ankle-deep snow on our unshoveled sidewalk waiting for an overcrowded bus that was 45 minutes late because it kept getting stuck on the minimally-plowed, unsalted hills.
Two bus stops down, of course, it got stuck again. "We're not going anywhere until a tow truck comes," the driver said, opening the door after ten minutes of trying to wiggle the bus up the hill. "So if you want to get off, go ahead. But I'm not stopping to let you back on again."
Amazingly, a flock of people skittered off the bus and went out to stand in the snow again. A little while later, someone spotted the next scheduled bus coming up behind us, and another bunch of people scampered off, even though there was no way the second bus could get around the first bus. So they ended up standing in the snow, too. It worked out for me, since I got to sit down and get through another sixty pages of Post Captain while the two bus drivers flagged down a dirt truck. With the bus now about an hour late, we finally got going again, and our driver was true to his word -- we went right past the poor dodos standing in the snow piles and kept on going, afraid that if we stopped, we'd end up stuck again. The Metro station was a slip-and-slide event, and my transfer bus was running on schedule, which meant I had missed it by three minutes and had to wait half an hour (in the still-falling snow) for the next one. Then, when I finally got off the bus in front of my office building, I splashed down right into an ankle-deep puddle of ice water. Thankfully, it's casual Friday, which means I get only slightly odd looks while walking barefoot around the office, waiting for my shoes and socks to dry out.
So. I try to be cheery and holly-jolly and all gung-ho about the first snow of the season. I'm just not very good at it. My icon will have to be jolly enough for both of us.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2003-12-05 09:57 am (UTC)My icon will have to be jolly enough for both of us.
Yup, me too. *points to icon* I'll just think about the guys stranded together in the snow, snuggling close and groping each other to keep warm. mmmmm Suddenly winter is *good*.
no subject
Date: 2003-12-05 10:10 am (UTC)Here, have some good SG gay porn to cheer you up! :) At least, when you get home.
And have some cookies too. :)
no subject
Date: 2003-12-05 10:25 am (UTC)LOL! Around here, the weather guys are heavily into drama, which, y'know, works for them during tornado season, but they have to reach a bit for it during the winter. So anytime there's any chance of a little winter precip, they sound the alarm and everyone flocks to the grocery stores like it's the End of the World As We Know It. Then... nothing happens. *snerk*
Except for when it does, and then it's usually mostly ice, which sucks so mightily I don't have the words to express it. Grrr.
Think spring.
no subject
Date: 2003-12-05 11:26 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-12-05 01:41 pm (UTC)Snow is not fun when you have to get up at 5:15 in the freaking morning, half an hour early, because you have to go outside and scrape the damned car and pray that you'll be able to get out of your parking space, and then go to work where you get call after call after call because *apparently* someone forgot to tell the crooks that they needed to stay in last night because it was going to snow. Stupid criminals.
And it also sucks when you have to do the same thing again tomorrow. And then drive to somewhere in Maryland to pick up your friend who came in last minute for a job interview and you haven't seen her in two years so there's no way you're letting a little bit of snow get in your way when she came all the way from Japan, but you're putting your life in your hands driving in this area because ALL THE DRIVERS ARE MORONS (except for me of course).
And I think I forgot my point, but anyway hope your socks dried and that your trip home is MUCH more pleasant!!!
no subject
Date: 2003-12-10 05:34 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-12-10 05:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-12-10 05:48 pm (UTC)But the groceries and hardware stores do good business.
no subject
Date: 2003-12-10 05:49 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-12-10 05:51 pm (UTC)Stupid snow. Stupid criminals.