Wednesday, February 27, 2013

The good, the bad, and the just plain stupid

A bit more than six inches of heavy, wet snow fell overnight, and we are to have another inch or two by lunchtime. Milwaukee Public Schools closed, though a bit later than they usually call it.

I made it in, though the drive was...interesting.

The Good
The facilities crew at the university is spectacular. I know I've said it before, but it warrants repeating. The lots and the sidewalks are clear, even when I come in at the crack of dawn, and they work hard to keep them that way. I never, ever have any fears of getting to work and not being able to navigate the parking lot.

The main streets around town were pretty well cleared - in fact, thanks to the fairly warm temps, there are a number of spots of standing water mixed in with the slush and snow.

The good people at McDonald's made it to work, making it possible to pick up my morning coffee.

The Bad
The snow removal in my condo complex...was sketchy to nonexistent. The driveway to our garage had been shoveled at some point last night, but still had three inches of fresh snow on it, as well as, for some unknown reason, random foot-high piles of snow.

The entrance to the complex is a boulevard-type road, with two lanes in each direction on either side of a median.  When I left this morning, a woman was standing just at the corner where I'd turn on to this street, watching her husband valiantly rock their car back and forth, trying to get it unstuck. Hmmm.

Ever resourceful, I simply turned onto the incoming side of the road, and tooled down to the street. The lanes on this side were also unplowed, but driven on; if you stuck to the previously-made ruts, you were fine. Well, unless you were driving a low-slung car.

As I said, once you hit the main streets, it was all fine.

The Just Plain Stupid
There will always be idiots who drive too quickly for the conditions, ride the wide line and deliberately run through slush just to watch it spray up and obscure your vision. But why, oh why do they always have to be on the road at the same time as me?

I realize the sidewalks aren't always cleaned, and it's sometimes better to walk in the road. But do you have to walk in the middle of the lane, where cars belong?

A semi turned over on the freeway that a coworker and I would normally take to work, so we both took city streets. We should have braved the highway - the semi dropped part of its load...chocolate. Talk about a missed opportunity.

1 comment:

mrs_fooko said...

Mmmm, Chocolate!

Snow removal for me equaled 90 minutes thus far, I will have to go out again later for the next session.