Dear Southern Public Works Department, 2007 Version
LEARN TO OPERATE A SNOWPLOW. No, we do NOT glissade the plow blade gently on the ice because we don't want the delicate tender metal of the blade to kiss the blacktop. We PLOW THAT MOTHER DOWN TO WHERE THE BLADE IS SCRAPING SPARKS OFF BARE BLACKTOP.
This is unfreakingbelievable. I haven't been out in two days, so this was the first time I'd seen the disaster. Tomorrow I'm walking out the door with my digital camera to document the utter INABILITY of these people to plow. Even for Southerners who aren't used to plowing 12-hour shifts during the winter, this is INCOMPETENT. Hell, I've never driven a plow in my life and I could give them remedial lessons!
Though some of it is the deeply strange microclimates. My apartment complex probably got 2-3 inches of snow with a thick ice crust on top. The complex guys did manage to get paths shoveled. I worship them.
I walked across the street, literally, to the elementary school. There it had to be at least 4-6 inches with the same thick ice crust. I am not a waif, and I was in Timberlands. On the way home tonight, I was carrying grocery bags (yeah, lots of fun, not) to add to my total weight. Both times, I could walk on the ice crust (where others hadn't churned through it) as if I were on concrete.
But because no one believes that sidewalks are anyone's responsibility...I won't see sidewalks until the spring thaw. Literally. And the two-lane twisty road is down to half-lanes on either side because of the above reluctance to use a plow blade for its intended purpose--there are ice sheets covering the rest of the road. Those COULD have been plowed if the plow drivers knew what to do.
Did I mention this town is too Ecologically Correct to put sand down on the roads so people might have a fighting chance to not fishtail off them and possibly over the ice sheets into culverts? Or, heaven forbid, SALT? I used to live in Deepest Whitest Connecticut, and there it was reasonable not to use salt on the roads because most people had well water. That is not true here, and it snows at least once a winter.
The former sidewalks are a moonscape of rubble--ice/snow chunks from the half-assed plow job--and walking on the road risks being hit by the speeding cars. I'm documenting, frankly, in case I have to file a lawsuit. I hope not to have to because that would mean I was hurt, but after last year when I was told airily, "You can get a Boy Scout troop together to clear the sidewalks" in one of the richest counties in the United STATES, and in a town that brags to all and sundry how "pedestrian-friendly" and "planned walking community" it is...damn right I'm prepping for a lawsuit. The piles at intersections are up to my waist in some cases because they were haphazardly shoved into piles. The main intersection is...not so good.
But I swear, the snow total by the intersection and about halfway down my road was 3 inches more than the total outside my front door. That is SOME damn microclimate.
I am having a moment of mean glee that the sidewalks by Boss Man's side of town are in the same disaster area because now HE gets to experience what I put up with. (Normally, his are clear.) He said he was walking on the ice crust and not breaking through either, and he's bigger and taller than I am.
Schools are closed again tomorrow because GEE, GOSH, THE CHIL-DREN CAN'T WALK ON THE SIDEWALKS. Gosh golly wow, you think if someone PAID ATTENTION AND CLEARED THEM, school might be in session? Naaaaaaaaaah.*eye roll*
The thing is, there are enough expat Northerners in this area that you'd think SOMEONE would have a lick of sense about what to do. Apparently not.
Grrrrrrrrr. My bad knee hurts.