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The Nuclear Winter
Wednesday, 2005 January 19 - 11:05 pm
We got some unexpected snow here today, about an inch or two. But to look at the aftermath, you'd think we'd been hit by a nuclear bomb.

... or as Dubya would say, "a nucular bomb".

The snow started coming down a little past noon. The weather forecast had been for just a few light flurries, but they were, well, wrong. (It was funny to listen to the evening news, as the weatherman struggled to explain what happened. "Well, there was SUPPOSED to be a dry northern system, and high pressure was SUPPOSED to keep moisture from the Gulf of Mexico away from us, and there wasn't SUPPOSED to be any moisture coming from the ocean... we, uh, just don't know what happened, folks. We just don't know.")

After an hour or so of fairly heavy snow, the roads were starting to get slick. The ground temperature was just high enough to let the snow melt and refreeze, so anything that got packed down by cars turned to ice. From my window at work, we had a prime viewing location for watching cars get stuck trying to climb the hilly roads. It was the trucks and SUVs that had the most trouble: going up an icy hill, it's not good to have a heavy rear-wheel drive vehicle with most of the weight over the front tires. The little Miatas and Focuses (Foci?) did just fine. Ha ha! Justice at last.

Then, like gravy that's been on the stove too long, traffic suddenly coagulated into a messy, lumpy mass. One minute cars seemed to be moving along, and then the next minute there was gridlock. Everywhere.

Another hour later, the news wire was rattling off reports about schools closing early, and accidents on major highways. Of course, with all the parents trying to get out to pick up their kids, traffic was only getting worse. Then, ALL THE PHONES WENT DOWN. I'm not kidding. No one could get a call through anywhere; land lines and cell phones were both down. I found out later that it was due to all the people trying to call each other about the snow. Sheesh, people, it's not like this is 9/11 here.

When the evening rush hour hit, it was utter chaos. The major freeways were parking lots. Some people sat in traffic for EIGHT HOURS. The roadsides were littered with cars that got stuck, ran out of gas, or were simply abandoned. Even the salt trucks were stuck in traffic. Kids were stranded well into the evening at four different schools, because the school buses couldn't get there. Hotels filled up with people who gave up trying to get home. It's madness, I tell you. I'll bet the grocery stores are all out of bread and milk now, too.

Me, I got home okay. Northern driving skills are handy. I like to think that bad weather is a true test of driving skills. Anyone can claim to be a good driver when the weather is nice and the roads are dry. But that's like saying you're Tiger Woods because you're good at Putt-Putt. We have to test ourselves in challenging conditions. Maybe I'll go out to a parking lot and do some "donuts".

Mmmm, donuts.
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Posted by Ken in: life

Comments

Comment #1 from Crouching Hamster (Guest)
2005 Jan 20 - 5:40 pm : #
WTF?
Comment #2 from Javi (Guest)
2005 Jan 24 - 8:19 pm : #
dude, you should see what seven days of continuous rain did to la. roads closed. houses devastated. my seven mile drive home from work swelled up to an average of an hour and a half for four days after... i mean, damn, at least your damage was caused by a solid substance!

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