Welcome to Frozen Hell

[koreth]

Frozen Hell has hit. There is 1/2" of fused sleet on the road. Yeah, I can drive, but using the brakes would be insane.

Should be fun going to work tomorrow. But it was fun being iced in the house with the kids this week. We played Euchre and my youngest daughter kept asking "can we draw and color?"

The nice thing of this frozen hell is that it makes the world slow down sometimes.

Koreth

[Black Cat]

I was always amazed by how you, Americans living in northern states, are surprised by snowstorms each and every year. I mean everytime it's like a big disaster for you. It's not like as if it was a once in a lifetime event: it seems that there is a big snowstorm EVERY YEAR! How come are you never ready for this?

Yesterday, it was our turn to be hit by this storm. 20-25 cm of snow fell (that's approximately 7-10 inches) with strong winds. But kids still went to school, I still had to go to an event and I had to work. It felt as if I was in the first Max Payne game with all this snow.

I must say though that I'm jealous of you: you get everytime a day off when there is a snowstorm! You have no idea how rare this is for us, even if we get probably as much snow than you!

[Simey]

You wanna see a country that goes into complete meltdown at a little fall of snow? Come to the U.K., chaps! ;D

To be fair to us Brits, prior to the last couple of years, substantial snow had been a rare thing since the mid-eighties - thanks a lot, global warming! - so we don't have the practice or the fundamental infrastructure in place to cope well with it. The snow we had a few weeks back - which you'd hardly have noticed, I'm sure - caused complete chaos, with schools and businesses shutting, people stuck on trains overnight and airports closed for days at a time; but if we had a snowstorm such as the the northeast of North America gets every year, I'm pretty sure the U.K. would just....well....stop.

So I like the snow, and I tend to welcome it when we get it here, but I wish you all the best all the best during your extra big snowstorm, and feel lucky we don't get its like here - we wouldn't have a clue what to do!

[koreth]

Feb 3, 2011 13:09:30 GMT -5 Black Cat said:

I was always amazed by how you, Americans living in northern states, are surprised by snowstorms each and every year. I mean everytime it's like a big disaster for you. It's not like as if it was a once in a lifetime event: it seems that there is a big snowstorm EVERY YEAR! How come are you never ready for this?

It is because we've become more wimpy over the years. This sort of stuff is what I was used to when I was a kid. And you're right, it was like this EVERY year. It was a blessed time to be a kid. I couldn't wait to get off the bus, put on the snowmobile suit, and g out to excavate massive tunnels, make toboggan tubes in big drifts, and roll up the snow in big insulation-like bats. The snow packed better, back then too.

I guess blame it on Global Warming, El Nino, La Nina, or whatever else. This is the first long consistent hard winter in a long time for my area.

Blame the days off of school on the lawyers. School districts are too afraid of being sued. Bah ! So what if some kids get stuck on a cold bus on a country backroad ! I happened to me when I was a kid. Makes you tougher.

Yeah, this snow & ice was a little tougher this year, but not really that bad in retrospect. But I still enjoyed slowing down and playing with the kids, so I guess I'm glad all the same ! ;D

[jan]

It's really funny how the relationship to snow changes as you grow up. I'm from a highland and we have loads of snow every year. When I was a kid, I enjoyed it so much! I would ski and build snow forts and snowmen and join snow-fights and everything all the time. Now, I'm just anxious - I have to think about heating the house and worry about the heavy snow on the roof and then when it melts it may flood our cellar, so having snow and tough winter is not so funny as it used to be. Well, I still do build snowmen, of course, but not so often and not so big.

When I was on the basic school (80's), kids from some remote villages weren't able to get to school sometimes for days. Some kids from a hamlet lost in a middle of nowhere (including my current girlfriend) had to commute on a sledge pulled by a horse owned by my GF's father - and sometimes they didn't make it through at all. But we were kids and we liked it.

And because I've got no car and prefer biking and skiing, I do enjoy when the streets of our town are closed for cars because of the snow, sometimes for more than one day in a winter - and when people can ski on the streets normally. I do like it. Actually, when I was working in the town (now I'm in the stupid Prague), I sometimes skied to work.

Nowadys, the papers and TVs are full of "breaking news" on snowing and closed airports and roads - perhaps people can't imagine how could we live a few decades ago. Everyone's surprised that it's snowing in winter.

[Simey]

Feb 4, 2011 7:41:02 GMT -5 jan said:

Nowadys, the papers and TVs are full of "breaking news" on snowing and closed airports and roads - perhaps people can't imagine how could we live a few decades ago. Everyone's surprised that it's snowing in winter.

I'm glad it's not just us!

Though I'm sure the Czech Republic gets much more snow, much more regularly than the U.K.!

But it is odd how snow causes so much more panic than it used to. Maybe we're generally used to travelling longer distances to work and to the shops these days, so travel disruption causes a lot more difficulties. Certainly I think the airports shutting causes problems for many more people now, because twenty or thirty years ago ordinary people didn't fly anywhere near as often 'cause it was so much more expensive.

But also, when we were kids we probably didn't watch the news and take notice of all the disruption, we just enjoyed it! Call me a big kid, but personally, I still do!

[koreth]

Feb 4, 2011 7:41:02 GMT -5 jan said:

It's really funny how the relationship to snow changes as you grow up. .. Now, I'm just anxious - I have to think about heating the house and worry about the heavy snow on the roof and then when it melts it may flood our cellar.

Yeah, know what you mean. First year I bought my place, the heating system froze up and fought the friggin' thing all winter to try and keep warm. Never worried about that when I was a kid. But the kids don't seem to mind too much. They're resilient that way.