first snow.
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We had the first real snow of the season this
week, and it apparently took people by surprise. As if
“Snow? In December? In New England? Naaaaw, no
way.” They had been predicting the storm for almost a week.
It wasn’t hard; they just tracked the same storm that plowed through
the Midwest as it marched east. They did goof up the forecast a
bit: they originally predicted the snow would be worst north and west
of Boston, but the storm ended up hitting south all the way to
Providence as well. They had footage on the local news of a woman
in Cape Cod lamenting “I’ve lived here for fifty years and I’ve never
seen it this bad.” You would have thought the world had come to
an end.
We got about six whole inches. I just don’t get it…it was really as if they’d never seen snow before. And what happened to the plows? Usually during a storm they’ve got plows going nonstop on the major highways even while the snow is still coming down. This time it was almost an afterthought: the snow let up around three pm, and when I left work at five there was no evidence that any plow had been out. Rush-hour traffic was snarled by a sea of slushy snow, an endless string of taillights slipping and sliding around into the distance. It took forty minutes to go the ten miles to the turnpike on 128, which you would think would be one of the first routes they would clear, it being a major artery and all. Nope – just us commuters, left to fend for ourselves. Come on, six inches? They could handle that in Texas, for goodness sake. Don’t get me wrong, it was a good storm – big flakes came down all day long, and we briefly had white-out conditions a little after lunchtime – but it wasn’t one for the record books by a long shot, and yet everyone freaked out like it was a sign of the apocalypse. And they knew it was coming, days in advance…plenty of time to get the old snow plows revved up and ready. Two days later the sun is out, the roads are clear, and life goes on as if nothing happened. All right everyone…PANIC! |