It's A Vicious Circle

For those of you who have never been lucky enough to live in the Northeast corner of the United States, let me explain how the weather cycle works around here. People lose their minds the first time that we are scheduled to get more than 6 inches of snow, feel kind of stupid when we only end up with 3 inches, don't believe the weatherman the next time he calls for significant amounts of snow, get crushed because that will be the time he is right and that sends us into a cycle lasting the rest of winter in which we over-preparing for one snowstorm and under-preparing for the next one. It is how it works every single year. In other words, I should not have been surprised with what happened today.

Last week we were scheduled to get a large storm in the middle of the day. Now, last time this happened no one took the weatherman too seriously and it caused major problems all over the place. At the time I was working 9 miles from where I live and it took me over 2 hours to get home. Because of that, people did not want a repeat and cancelled everything in anticipation: people stayed home from work, schools let out early, late activities were cancelled and all sports were postponed. Only then it didn't snow much at all. We ended up with less than four inches of light, fluffy snow. I guess the 57 computer models never accounted for the fact that winds can shift. Everyone was feeling pretty stupid for over-reacting to a storm that ended up never materializing.

So, when we were scheduled to only get 3-6 inches of snow this afternoon, no one took it too seriously. Plus, it's school vacation week, so no one had to worry about kids getting home from school. Thus, no plows went out, everyone went to work and no one worried too much as it began to snow heavier around the middle of the afternoon. Only this was the worst kind of snow that you can get - the kind that mixed with rain and created really heavy slush which was covering a thin layer of ice. Awesome. Before everyone snapped out of it and got the plows on the roads it was pretty much a nightmare out there. But, on the positive side, I had forgotten the adrenaline rush you get when you turn the steering wheel to the left and the car keeps going straight. Really reminds you why you buy a car with all-wheel drive.

-So far in these Winter Olympics neither Lithuania nor Ireland has won a medal of any color. Guess we can see where I got my winter sports prowess from. But, at least I finally saw a Lithuanian competitor today in the biathlon. Sure, she was coming in 34th at the time, but that's better than nothing.