Enough already!

Look.  I like snow. I still feel the same way about snow now that I felt when I was 7.

Problem is, when I was 7 I lived in West Virginia. It was the 1970s. They expected snow. Snow fell so often in the winter that climatologists spoke of Global Cooling. (which is why I have never been able to get 100% behind the idea of Global Warming).

1-3 inches of snow was nothing when I was kid. You didn’t get a delay, let alone a whole day off from school for 1-3 inches. 4-6 inches would get you a delay. It might get you a day off depending on how much snow was already on the ground and whether it was still snowing at 6am.  I remember a couple times in high school where we had a delay and then an early dismissal because of storm conditions. But those were serious storm conditions. The sort of conditions that buses with chains can’t drive in.

But now I apparently live in a sub-tropical zone because the mere threat of flurries can be enough to cancel some schools.  It’s not as if is never snows here. We get at least 2 decent snow storms a year but it’s not enough to justify the sort of preparedness I am used too. There are no chains for the buses. No studded tires for cars. (you can have them on your car Nov 1 to Mar 1, but good luck finding any to buy). No efforts made to salt the ‘back roads’. (this is a rural county, a significant number of us live on back roads) Hell, my kids got their first pair of snow pants in their lives this week. So I do understand not wanting to spend money on items that get little use

My kids have not had school all week. It snowed 2-4 inches over the weekend so Monday’s cancellation I expected though honestly, I think I 2 hour delay would have sufficed. The roads were passable by 9am. I live on a back road – paved, not dirt – but still near the bottom of the DOTs priorities. Tuesday’s cancellation came out of the blue. Apparently the back roads were iffy for the buses, but other counties had a 2 hour delay and I was out on the roads at 9:30 & they were fine, most of the snow was gone.

Then Tuesday another 2-4 inches fell, so of course no school Wednesday. But surely to god there would be school Thursday? Right? Even my driveway is passable!

But no!

Back roads are still icy. No school today. Since it is not getting any warmer today than it was yesterday & we are expecting a major storm tomorrow so the road crews will be pretreating the major roads rather than attending to the back roads, I’m assuming those roads will still be icy so no school tomorrow either. I’m just waiting for the phone call confirming my suspicions

Given that the storm is supposed to last from Friday afternoon until Saturday evening and dump anywhere from 4 to 36 inches depending on your weather source, probably no school Monday and if 3 inches of snow makes back roads impassable I can only think they will still be ‘icy’ on Tuesday and probably Wednesday as well (when there is a 30% chance of snow).

I understand wanting to be safe. I understand we have bus drivers that are not used to driving in snow/icy conditions and don’t have the equipment to deal with it. My kids ride those buses on a back road.  So it’s my own offspring that the county is looking after. And it’s been an unusual winter. But maybe it is time to accept that it SNOWS HERE and buy the chains & be ready for next winter.