Thursday, February 15, 2007

Thursday 13 #26- Winter bad behavior rant

Bookwormom's winter bad behavior rant. All I really want to do is live somewhere where life *gasp* goes on pretty much as normal if & when precipitation falls out of the sky in winter.

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1. That road crews would plow the major roads from shoulder to shoulder not one lane down the middle giving drivers half a lane per side of the yellow lines & thereby forcing drivers to play chicken.

2. That road crews would make multiple passes along highways and major local roads. One pass per road simply isn't cutting it.

3. That road crews would apply sand or salt or whatever more than once- especially if the forecast is for heavy sleet & ice.

4. That the local authorities would pass & enforce ordinances mandating public right of ways, ie: sidewalks, be cleared within so many hours of a snowfall & mandating application of sand or salt to the same. Don't laugh- these announcements were made over the tv & radio news when we lived in Colorado. From my observations, citizens were generally compliant & I know at least one person who was cited for noncompliance.

5. That developers/owners of large businesses contract snow plowers to clear the entire lot before the business opens. Having your car plowed around, leaving it stranded in a tiny island of snow & ice & slush past your ankles is not fun. The eldery lady parked beside me was furious.

6. That utility companies should not claim 'storm related damages' as a reason for days long power outages while in the same statement claim 'many improvements on the power distribution system had already been made' before the storm. Luckily this did not happen with our utility company, but one over the river. I feel sorry for their luckless customers.

7. That service stations place actual windshield washer fluid- the nonfreezing kind- on the islands outside. Usable squeegees & paper towels would be nice too. Frozen water & lack of squeegees are not helpful to the driving public who might like to see the vehicles they are forced to play chicken with.

8. That parents should be responsible enough to purchase hats, mittens & scarves for their young children before the weather turned bitter. The number of parents ranting & raving about the lack of appropriate snow gear amazed me. Little tiny ones bundled into blankets- but no coats, hats, mitties, etc. is appalling. "But this is the SOUTH," one mum whined. "It isn't supposed to get cold here." Well, it is. Your lack of forethought penalizes your child.

9. That drivers would allow ample space between vehicles & not continue to drive as though the roads were dry & clean, ie: total insanity.

10. That family members or neighbors would assist the elderly living near them. Being a compassionate human would be nice.

11. Related to #8. Parents should always know where their children are, no matter what their ages are, and NEVER allow them near bodies of water. Ever. You do not want to plan their funerals.

12. If all of the hype and hysteria that goes into reporting 'weather events' went into, say- allieviating hunger or tutoring adults to read or something else equally helpful- the world would be (could be) a much better place.

13. Receptionists or other front line 'coping with the public' type employees need to be coached that prospective guests/patrons/patients do not wish to be attacked for having the nerve to enter your business & wish for friendly, respectful service despite the horrible, life threatening (she really did say that) weather. Shouldn't I just turn around & go home now?.

7 comments:

CindyS said...

4. I'm pretty sure we have that up here and I was shocked - I was all, 'they can't tell me what to do!' - uh, yeah, they can ;)

5. Our plows run most of the night - I really don't see them out during the day unless it's in the middle of the storm and I would have entered the store and told them that their staff would need to shovel me out - okay, I would have thrown the car in reverse and floored it.

8. I think that mum needs a map and I would be horrified to see kids without proper clothing. I guess it's just standard here - I usually buy my godchildren their winter coats or their boots.

9. Up here we call that the 'first snowfall stupidity' - we have the most accidents on the first snow fall when everyone forgets what it's like to drive on snow and ice.

10. At the moment a neighbor two doors down doesn't have their drive shoveled out but they are retired and I think they go south for the winter - I was going to knock on my neighbours door and ask (we're new so we don't know everyone) - will do that this weekend - we have a snowblower and if they are due back this week they might like having everything done.

12. Amen.

13. Wow. What a drama queen.

cindyS

Kerri Wall said...

Amen to number 12! We just had a really bad storm down here with tornados...don't know if you saw it on the news. Ever since, if it even looks like thunder the guys on the news freak out. And I won't even talk about tropical storms....

Too cold for me!

Fiona

Tara Marie said...

I can't complain about how our area handles bad weather, though my street is one of the last plowed, we live on a dead end off of a dead end.

We must have our walks cleared within 24 hours, we can't park on the street if there is more than 2 inches of snow.

Number 8 and number 11 really hit home, living in the NE you almost never see babies not completely bundled, it's just too cold, but older kids at school bus stops shock me, who let their kids out of the house dressed in a light jacket, no hats, gloves or mittens in 10 degree weather? And water safety is a must. We literally live on a river, it's a beautiful place to live, but most of the parents on my street are lunatic about how careful we need to be.

Bob & Muffintop said...

Cindy~ Re #5: that's what I remember too, but not here. Resulting in chaos naturally. #8~ These parents ought to be ashamed, really. #9: I wish we had that excuse, but honestly? People drive recklessly no matter the weather. #10: This morning I helped the neighbor push his 4wd SUV out of a patch of ice just this am. Then he helped get our little Toyota unglued. Neither of us can actually speak to each other (me not speaking Spanish & him barely speaking English) but we did just fine.

Fiona- I've lived in tornado alley KS. Very scary stuff. Hope you & yours are ok w/the bad storms, etc.

Tara~ #8 & 11 really really set me on edge. IMO it's child endangerment. There's no excuse. Really.

Jenster said...

Despite the cluster**** that happened on I-78, they seem to be pretty good about salting, brining, plowing, etc. around here.

The frozen water thing scares me to no end. We saw some people playing hockey on a frozen pond the other day and it kind of freaked me out. I'd never seen someone skating on anything other than an ice rink.

Bob & Muffintop said...

Jenster- LOL 0__0 We skated & drove on large bodies of frozen water as a kid. WAY north of here. In our area it simply hasn't been cold enough for ponds & such to freeze deeply or hard enough to support people or animals.

CindyS said...

I was stunned when Bob told me that up near Montreal there is an island where in the summer they boat home but in the winter they drive their cars across on the ice! Nope. Not interested!

CindyS