Uh, Oh! It's Gonna Snow....
Snow in Baltimore is Not a Good Thing™. I woke up this morning to weather reports saying that we are going to get four to six inches starting this afternoon through tomorrow morning. A bit of math tells us that this is no more than a half-inch per hour, just enough to set the state into a panic.
(For the record, Bobby heard six to eight inches in Howard County, where we live, right smack in central Maryland.)
Schools have already been closed early for the day. I just got back from lunch at Subway, and there is nary a flake in sight. As of this writing, it is 1:14 p.m.
It feels cold, though, like snow, and the clouds are low and gray. I suspect that we'll get something; whether we get eight inches--or even two--remains to be seen. Maryland meteorologists like to spin ginormous blizzards and we're lucky if we get a light dusting. Sometimes I think I'm the only person in this state who understands that for snow to stick on the ground, the ground must be cold. Three days after we have a seventy-degree weekend, people were in a panic over the possibility of snow.
The ground is cold, though, so we'll see.
How do people react in your areas to snow? (If you get it at all.) Does life stop or are you among the numbers who (rightfully) scoff at we panicky Marylanders starting stampedes for the last roll of toilet paper and creating ten-car pile-ups on the Interstate whenever the white stuff appears in the air?
My worst experience, by far, occured sophomore year of university. It was spring semester, and I had a Psychology of Motivation lecture (very boring; not very motivating) as my only class for the day. I was a commuting student, and it generally took me forty minutes to get from home to campus, which was kind of annoying on days like this, when I had an hour-and-fifteen-minute lecture and nothing else, meaning that I was in the car longer than I was in class.
Before Motivation, nothing was happening weather-wise, but when I got out, there was a fluffy inch of snow on the ground. It was quite pretty to look at.
It took me almost four hours to get home.
It took a half-hour just to make the one-mile drive from campus to the Baltimore Beltway.
By the time I got home, my butt ached unbelievably bad, and I literally almost cried with relief, seeing my parents' house cresting the horizon.
It was on a whim that I took the Beltway that day, figuring that its 55-mph tameness was preferable to the 65-mph terror that Interstate 95 can become. I only started driving a month before my eighteenth birthday, so I was still a rookie at this point, only a year-and-a-half later, and this would be my first bona fide experience driving in the snow. It was an inspired choice to take the Beltway, though, as there was something like a forty-car pile-up that shut down I-95. So, if I'd gone home that way, four hours would have been just the beginning of my commute.
Last year, before the Presidential Innaguration, Bobby got a half-day at work. It started snowing just as he left, and he got home at the same time as if he'd left his office at the normal time.
I have no problem driving in the snow, but Maryland drivers--who tend to be idiots to begin with--compound their stupidity the moment precipitation enters the forecast. And if the precipitation is frozen...hold on. First, you have the idiots in the ginormous SUVs who think that, because they have four-wheel drive, that makes it safe to go zipping along at 70 mph while everyone else is puttering along at 10. Then there are those who must freeze with panic (no pun intended) and forget any and all driving courtesy that they might have possessed before the arrival of the snow. On the aforementioned four-hour drive home from school, I was cut off more times than during rush hour, and everyone seemed to have forgotten how to use their turn signals.
Then there are those who are overly cautious to the point of inanity. Like the guy I got stuck behind on my way to Subway, mincing along, ten miles below the limit and taking every turn like he was driving a car made of glass.
And the snow hadn't even started.
Johnny the Boss has already told me that, if there is snow on the ground, he will send one of the warrant officers to pick me up for work. Let's see, free transportation in the capable hands of ex-State troopers, driving in a hulk of an unmarked police car, not having to worry about cleaning my car or getting into an accident or even buying gas....
Thank you very much, I'll take it!
I also want to let everyone know that Bobby and I will officially begin work on Nelyo's Candy in January. I believe in upholding my commitments, so those of you for whom I beta and those groups for which I mod or co-mod, I will continue to lend you my help. But if I seem scarce during that time, this is probably why. I will continue to post AMC and to read my friends' list every day, but I might not always reply. But, as always, I am accessible through email and YIM, so if you need me during that time, you know where to find me!
Thanks to all of my friends--online and offline--who have been so wonderfully supportive during this exciting time. And to those of you who live in the area, be safe in the snow! (You might want to begin by not coming anywhere near Maryland!)
(For the record, Bobby heard six to eight inches in Howard County, where we live, right smack in central Maryland.)
Schools have already been closed early for the day. I just got back from lunch at Subway, and there is nary a flake in sight. As of this writing, it is 1:14 p.m.
It feels cold, though, like snow, and the clouds are low and gray. I suspect that we'll get something; whether we get eight inches--or even two--remains to be seen. Maryland meteorologists like to spin ginormous blizzards and we're lucky if we get a light dusting. Sometimes I think I'm the only person in this state who understands that for snow to stick on the ground, the ground must be cold. Three days after we have a seventy-degree weekend, people were in a panic over the possibility of snow.
The ground is cold, though, so we'll see.
How do people react in your areas to snow? (If you get it at all.) Does life stop or are you among the numbers who (rightfully) scoff at we panicky Marylanders starting stampedes for the last roll of toilet paper and creating ten-car pile-ups on the Interstate whenever the white stuff appears in the air?
My worst experience, by far, occured sophomore year of university. It was spring semester, and I had a Psychology of Motivation lecture (very boring; not very motivating) as my only class for the day. I was a commuting student, and it generally took me forty minutes to get from home to campus, which was kind of annoying on days like this, when I had an hour-and-fifteen-minute lecture and nothing else, meaning that I was in the car longer than I was in class.
Before Motivation, nothing was happening weather-wise, but when I got out, there was a fluffy inch of snow on the ground. It was quite pretty to look at.
It took me almost four hours to get home.
It took a half-hour just to make the one-mile drive from campus to the Baltimore Beltway.
By the time I got home, my butt ached unbelievably bad, and I literally almost cried with relief, seeing my parents' house cresting the horizon.
It was on a whim that I took the Beltway that day, figuring that its 55-mph tameness was preferable to the 65-mph terror that Interstate 95 can become. I only started driving a month before my eighteenth birthday, so I was still a rookie at this point, only a year-and-a-half later, and this would be my first bona fide experience driving in the snow. It was an inspired choice to take the Beltway, though, as there was something like a forty-car pile-up that shut down I-95. So, if I'd gone home that way, four hours would have been just the beginning of my commute.
Last year, before the Presidential Innaguration, Bobby got a half-day at work. It started snowing just as he left, and he got home at the same time as if he'd left his office at the normal time.
I have no problem driving in the snow, but Maryland drivers--who tend to be idiots to begin with--compound their stupidity the moment precipitation enters the forecast. And if the precipitation is frozen...hold on. First, you have the idiots in the ginormous SUVs who think that, because they have four-wheel drive, that makes it safe to go zipping along at 70 mph while everyone else is puttering along at 10. Then there are those who must freeze with panic (no pun intended) and forget any and all driving courtesy that they might have possessed before the arrival of the snow. On the aforementioned four-hour drive home from school, I was cut off more times than during rush hour, and everyone seemed to have forgotten how to use their turn signals.
Then there are those who are overly cautious to the point of inanity. Like the guy I got stuck behind on my way to Subway, mincing along, ten miles below the limit and taking every turn like he was driving a car made of glass.
And the snow hadn't even started.
Johnny the Boss has already told me that, if there is snow on the ground, he will send one of the warrant officers to pick me up for work. Let's see, free transportation in the capable hands of ex-State troopers, driving in a hulk of an unmarked police car, not having to worry about cleaning my car or getting into an accident or even buying gas....
Thank you very much, I'll take it!
I also want to let everyone know that Bobby and I will officially begin work on Nelyo's Candy in January. I believe in upholding my commitments, so those of you for whom I beta and those groups for which I mod or co-mod, I will continue to lend you my help. But if I seem scarce during that time, this is probably why. I will continue to post AMC and to read my friends' list every day, but I might not always reply. But, as always, I am accessible through email and YIM, so if you need me during that time, you know where to find me!
Thanks to all of my friends--online and offline--who have been so wonderfully supportive during this exciting time. And to those of you who live in the area, be safe in the snow! (You might want to begin by not coming anywhere near Maryland!)